


Second Place

by K (Thiswasmydesign)



Series: Another path [5]
Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga), Death Note: Another Note
Genre: &, Cameo of characters from the Arsonist, Control Issues, Destroy the world, Developing Relationship, Gen, Genius war, Lacking a moral code, Light's done behaving, M/M, Mental Instability, Murder, Murder Mystery, Non-Sexual Submission, Rise of Kira, Smut, Submission, To remake in the eyes of the winner, Trust Issues, Violence to teenager, Well - Freeform, detective war, does he count?, to Near
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-04-08 10:10:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 67,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14103105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thiswasmydesign/pseuds/K
Summary: Light & L are establishing a relationship and looking for their next case, but Near has lost his challenge to L from the DD murder case and has a plan to achieve his ultimate victory. Joining forces with Beyond as L had feared, he has a plan.Near is done trying to best L; he has bigger fish to fry, and Kira is the first target on his plate. And now the fight is not for the title of L, but for the world.Third part of the core Another Path trilogy and follows on directly from the DD murder case





	1. Roleplay

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for your kind messages and kudos on the DD murder case, which is part 2 of the main stories of this 3 part series. As I mention there, this part is proving difficult to write; however, your support has motivated me to push through the writers block. I can't guarantee quite as regular updates on this one due to that writer's block, but I have a bit written in advance, so let's begin.

Light had a theory.

It was about L, as most of his theories were these days; the man had inserted himself into Light’s life, was the centre of it and Light could only hope he would be for the foreseeable future. He had infected Light like a disease, but there was no cure for that now. Light was too far gone.

Light’s theory was simple extrapolation of known facts; L called him Kira in bed; he liked to be commanded, controlled.

L, it seemed, had a Kira fetish; and Light was only too happy to feed into it, if that were the case.

It would be a game; Light had enjoyed the real thing, the chase between he and L. He knew it wouldn’t be acceptable to L for him to go back to killing as he had done before, but he also would need to make the game real. Even if he wasn’t killing many, he had to keep L guessing, and he had a plan. For this have its best effect, there had to be a real degree of danger involved. He had obtained paper that looked exactly like Notebook paper; he would be able to use real sheets, sometimes, and false ones at other times, keeping L guessing as to when criminals would die, simultaneously creating a puzzle for the detective to solve without going too far, and allowing him to stimulate this fetish of L’s more frequently than would otherwise be possible.

And allowing him to indulge his own fantasies too, of course. In all, a win-win.

He needed to test his theory. That was why he spent most of the day coming up with the most brutal and gruesome method of killing he had ever tried to imagine, gradually adding the sentences to a Death Note page throughout the day when L was otherwise occupied by cake or cases.

He didn’t add the name yet; no, better to wait until the right moment for that. His discoveries of additional rules of the Notebook were able to serve him well again; he could write anything, so long as he didn’t write a name, and when he wrote the name beside it, it would happen.

It didn’t matter to him that several of the things he wrote were almost impossible; that the name he wrote would probably just die of a heart attack – should just die of a heart attack, because he might be a killer but he was not actually that cruel, at least most of the time. It wouldn’t do for Kira, who stood as executioner for Justice, to become just as bad as the brutal murderers that he was working to stop. L knew that there were rules and limits to the Notebook’s influence, but he also knew it could be used to control the victims before death; he had not seen Light’s early experiments and therefore didn’t know where the limits lay. Light could write practically anything.

He set himself up that day on the couch, waiting until Mello and Ryuk were out of the house before taking out the Notebook and idly flicking through it, in full view of L, who was otherwise distracted by a case file.

“Light-Kira, what are you doing?” L asked eventually, noticing the looming presence of an open notebook and pen.

“Thinking.”

“I can see that,” L grumbled. “But what is Light-Kira thinking _about_?”

“Oh, just whose name to write next,” Light mused, flicking to the page he had written on last, with his detailed description of death. “I’m bored.”

L looked more concerned at the suggestion of boredom than the suggestion of writing a name; Light had ten names that he still needed to do something about when the time was right. Killers he would need to stop before they could kill again. Ten serial killers they had not been able to guide the police to find any evidence on, though they were sure that they were the murderers.

“Bored?”

“Hmm…” Light held the page open at the last entry, certain that L would be tempted to come over and investigate more closely. Sure enough the curious detective came to perch beside him on the sofa, trying to subtly read over his shoulder. “I’ve been thinking about it all day.”

Light held out the book, offering it to L. The detective took it, his eyes skimming the page, first with his unnaturally swift reading, then again more slowly, taking in every single word in detail.

“Kira,” L mumbled softly. “What is this?”

“I was thinking,” Light told him quite casually. “About how I might have killed you, if Rem hadn’t spoiled our game.”

“Oh.” L read over the page again, his wide panda eyes unblinking. Light hesitated. Had he been wrong? Was L as horrified as he looked, or was this just an act? “You have never killed like this.”

“Only the best would be worth it for you,” Light allowed, taking the Notebook out of L’s hands. The detective didn’t resist, though his fingers did trail after it for a few inches; to read it again, or to keep Light from using it?

There was no going back now; if he didn’t test this theory he would be left wondering, and Light didn’t like not having the answers.

He began to write; a single letter on the page; ‘L’.

L gasped beside him, his fists clenching but not moving to take the Notebook away. Light glanced at his face, hoping to see fear and arousal, concerned that he would just see L’s blank detective’s mask that he would sure would grace him if he had been wrong.

Oh.

He had been absolutely right.

With a flourish of calligraphy, he finished the name. Not L Lawliet; Lars Köhler, a German who had killed about a dozen young girls in Spain, though more bodies had washed up in the last week.

L let out a breath he probably hadn’t realised he had been holding; the detective mask was there, but beneath it Light could see all he needed to know. At that moment the fear was most prominent; Light did not allow him to see what name he had written, closing the Notebook and setting it down on the desk. The time on the entry was specified; an hour from that moment. L had read that; would not only have to wait forty seconds to ensure that he was safe; Light had the whole hour.

He sank back into the comfortable chair, spinning the pen between his fingers. L made a grab for the Notebook; Light caught his wrist and tugged, pulling the detective into his lap and restraining the other hand too.

L fought, feet slamming into Light’s chest as he wriggled to try to escape Light’s grasp, to try to look at the Notebook. It was panic, pure and simple. Honestly, Light couldn’t help but feel a little offended; had he not done enough by now to show L he didn’t intend to kill him? If L didn’t trust him, why had he given him his name in the first place?

_Because he was cornered,_ Light reminded himself as he twisted to avoid a kick to the throat. _Because if he didn’t tell me, Beyond Birthday would have done it anyway._

Still… “Stop.”

He used his darkest Kira tone; commanding and finite. L fell still instantly; eyes wide and skin flushed from the struggle.

Light idly noticed that his chest was quite sore; the detective was close enough that he hadn’t been able to get enough force in the impact with his feet to break any bones, but it would certainly bruise.

“Now now, L Lawliet,” Light scolded imperiously. “Yesterday, you gave me your submission. Would you take it away so quickly? Would you displease Kira?”

L’s lips were parted a little, his breath coming in little pants; Light was getting through the fear now.

“One hour left to live,” Light suggested, “And you would spend it fighting?”

“Fuck you,” L snarled, fighting again. Light had him held more securely, having altered his hold whilst L was still; L could no longer land any kicks, and could not free his wrists. All he could do was squirm around Light’s lap, which only managed to make the mutual arousal more obvious.

“What a wonderful suggestion,” Light purred, close to L’s ear. The detective fell still again. “One hour – should I fuck you, L?”

L was catching on; some of the tension had left him, his eyes still as wide, his pupils blown.

“Oh.”

There. L had caught on to the game. About time, too. Did he really have so little trust, after all Light had done?

Of course, he did. The detective’s trust issues alone would have been fodder for a few hundred hours of psychotherapy. Perhaps that came from solving the worst murder cases worldwide, every day.

Perhaps it was just because he was sleeping with the murderer with the highest body count in the world. He did, Light surmised, have some reason to be a little paranoid.

Light wondered if he had pushed too far.

“I’m sorry,” he spoke gently, releasing the detective from his grasp; it was a good sign that L didn’t immediately move off his lap. “I wanted to see… I wanted to try…”

“Roleplay,” L suggested the term; inadequate, since the only roles they would really be playing were their own, but that seemed the simplest way to describe it.

“Yes.”

“Very realistic roleplay.”

“Sorry,” Light flushed.

“Don’t be,” L scowled at him. “I’m not sure you should have stopped.”

“What?” Light gasped, stunned.

“You shouldn’t have stopped,” L grumbled. “You could have tied me up so I couldn’t struggle. I’d have got over it when the hour passed.”

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Light stared. “It’s obvious that you get off on… well, this. But, if you didn’t know what was going on…”

“I imagine, once I got over the initial shock of you writing my name, I’d have rather appreciated the experience; especially with only an hour to live. Surviving beyond that would have been a bonus.”

“Then I’m sorry I stopped,” Light laughed, wondering if he would ever understand L.

“You,” L huffed. “Are doing entirely too much apologising.”

“Okay.” Light fell silent, considering. “You know, I have no intention of e _ver_ actually putting your name in that book.”

“You are entirely too clever for your own good,” L told him fondly. “Not in the book? That leaves you free to write it on any page you have removed.”

“L Lawliet,” Light spoke firmly, placing a hand over his head. “I swear to you, I will never write your name in a Death Note, or any part of the same. You can trust me.”

“Well then,” L raised a non-existent eyebrow. His lack of surprise made it clear that he didn’t believe a word of Light’s promise. “We can always pretend?”

“Yes,” Light agreed, keeping his eagerness out of his voice, measuring L’s response to the idea first. Since the detective was palming Light’s cock through his clothing, he certainly seemed eager enough. “Now?”

“When else?” L bowed his head, looking suddenly very depressed. “I’m going to die in an hour, after all, when else can you celebrate your victory, dear Kira?”

Light laughed, lifting L’s slight weight with him as he stood. The detective’s legs wrapped around his hips, clinging tightly as Light carried him through to the bedroom.

“My safe word is broccoli,” L reminded Light as the younger man set him down on his feet in the bedroom. “No matter how far you go, or how much I fight it, if I have not used that word, it is all a part of the game.”

Light nodded, considering the detective.

“Since the premise of the game has changed,” he instructed, “why don’t we work with a different plot? Kira can control a victim’s actions before death; I think I would like you to strip, and kneel.”

“As you command,” L nodded.

Light took his time moving to lock the door. Mello and Ryuk may have gone out for a while, with Watari to search for worthy cases (and no doubt cause trouble on the way), but they hadn’t given any idea of time that they might return, and it was always possible that if the living room was empty when they returned to the house, then Mello would search for them regardless of what they were doing. Light really didn’t want the soon to be fifteen-year-old walking in on them. More likely, given that it was Mello, he didn’t want the teenager to bust into the room and decide to bounce up and down on the bed, or provide background music, or something equally distressing.

By the time he turned from the door L was in the centre of the room, already in position on his knees. Light studied him, trying to be detached and dominating, to restrain his emotions and think as just Kira, setting his gentler thoughts and emotions aside for now.

What Light was sorely tempted to do was almost certainly over the line; L would definitely stop him. He would almost have felt guilty for considering it, but then, the detective had surprised him so far and if L didn’t approve he only need say. Besides, L had been present when he bought what he was planning to use.

“How does it feel?” he asked, his voice purely Kira. With steady, percussive strides, he moved around the room, never getting close to L; predatory. As he assessed from every angle, L held still, tense, resisting the temptation to watch him in return.

“How does what feel?” L spat. Light grinned; their game began.

“To know, L, that you have lost.” Light figured that there was no point holding back; they were limited to just an hour, after all. “To know that, though you still breathe, you are dead; defeated by Kira.”

“If I die, there are others who will come for you.”

“Idiots and children,” Light laughed. “They will not win, L. You were my only worthy opponent; that is why I have given you this time to worship at the feet of the God of the New World.”

“I will never worship you, Kira.”

“On your feet,” Light commanded. L held still on his knees, spitting at him; the glob landed just short. Disgusting; real anger sparked. “I said…”

Light strode forward, bodily lifting L by the arm, one hand around his throat.

“…on your feet.”

L planted his feet on the ground, toes curling into the carpet; he was keeping up the premise that a direct command from Kira could not be disobeyed due to control from the Death Note. Light kicked them apart, making space between them.

“Remain still,” he commanded; L froze, glaring at him.

Light stepped away, reaching into the bottom drawer of his bedside table and collecting the item he wanted. He heard L’s breath catch.

He secured a cuff around L’s left ankle, then nudged his right out further; making the space between large enough for the solid bar to spread them.

“You will serve me well before you die,” Light taunted, catching L’s wrists and pulling them downwards so that the detective was doubled over, the palms of his hands pressed flat to the floor. Two more cuffs clicked shut around the thin limbs.

Light stepped away, making another percussive lap around L. In front of the detective he paused, crouching down.

“Comfortable?” he asked gently, genuinely concerned. L smiled back.

“You’re ruining it again,” the detective scolded.

“You’re sure though?” Light didn’t think the restraints looked all that tolerable himself, no matter how much he appreciated the position it left the detective in. “You might be in this position for a while.”

L nodded, dutifully checking by moving around a little, as much as the restraints would allow. The right handcuff was just a little too tight; if he had to rotate his wrist at all it pinched. He told Light, who dutifully corrected.

“Better?” Light checked; L confirmed it. “I don’t know how you can be comfortable in this position.”

L was almost folded into two at the hips; a very comfortable position for him, a standing version of his deductive crouch. He told Light this. A glimmer of curiosity flickered through the younger man’s eyes.

“Wonder if I can fuck you whilst you’re in that position at some point,” he explained. “Alright…”

He stood, calling back the detachment, the darkness; Kira.

And walking away.

“Kira?”

Light smiled as L questioned after him; he settled on the bed, removing and folding his shirt. L couldn’t see him directly from the position he was in, and couldn’t move towards him due to the bindings. He could, however, watch in the mirror as Light also removed his trousers and underwear, adding them to the folded pile.

“Kira…” L tried to catch his attention; Light positioned the pillows on the bed carefully before lounging back into them. His cock was hard from the sight of L naked and bound; he wrapped a hand around it, stroking lazily. He didn’t look at L, not even in the mirror.

“Light!”

Light grinned as L’s patience failed, sweeping off the bed and collecting a cane from the drawer.

He ran the tip from the base of L’s neck upward along his spine.

“ _What_ did you just call me?”

“You were ignoring me,” L growled.

“And you think you deserve Kira’s attention?” Light laughed. “You think you’re worth your God’s precious time?”

“Not my God,” L snapped.

The cane flicked upwards and back down sharply, leaving a red welt on the detective’s raised ass cheeks.

“Argh!” L was startled enough to nearly fall forward, his weight heavily leaning on his hands as his knees buckled. Light hadn’t hit hard, but the cane was thin and solid; any blow would be painful.

“Would you like to try again?” he offered the opportunity.

“Not my fucking God.”

_Smack._

This time the detective nearly went down; Light had to catch him before he could fall. He hesitated a moment, but L did not use his word.

“One more try?”

“Kira…”

“Not good enough,” Light lifted the cane. L’s whole body tensed, expecting the blow to land. Instead, Light reached around and wrapped his hand around L’s cock, stroking too gently. L began to rock as much as the restraints would allow into the touch, trying to get more friction.

As his ass moved backwards, Light flicked the cane.

L jolted forwards, toppling sideways to the floor, hitting hard. Light stood over him, considering his options.

He offered out a foot.

“Kiss,” he commanded. His whole body shaking, L complied. “I’m going to get you up, and then we’re going to try this again – but this time, I won’t be so gentle.”

L could do nothing to help or resist as Light pulled him up, bound as he was. Light waited, long enough for L to be quivering, then rested the cane over one of the reddened lines. The detective jolted.

“…God.”

“Good, my pet,” Light praised, tossing the cane to the bed. “Now, what would you pray for from your God tonight?”

“Release me,” L demanded; words deliberately chosen.

“That can be arranged,” Light stroked his hand over L’s cheeks, over the red marks; they were sensitive, if L’s gasps were anything to go by, but he did not protest, even leaning in to the touch.

He walked away again; holding the detective in suspense.

“Kira… God… please,” L gasped only after Light had returned to his own pleasure; he had collected lubrication from the drawer, slicking his hand and stroking his cock. At L’s begging, he returned to the detective, stroking his slicked fingers around his entrance.

“The only words that you will use are ‘Kira’ and ‘God’,” he instructed. “Otherwise, you will be silent.”

L nodded, biting his lip. Light slid one finger inside; L rocked back against it.

“So ready to welcome your God,” he praised, inserting a second finger, curling them pointedly against that spot in L that should make him moan; L bit down on his lip to prevent any sound escaping, drawing blood.

“Kira…”

Light was impatient; he knew he should do more to prepare L, but this game was not really meant to be gentle, and the detective was not as tight as he had been the night before, when they had last done this; loose enough, after only a few movements of his fingers. That, combined with the position that the bar held him in had him perfectly open, ready for Light’s cock.

“I’m going to fuck you now,” he told the detective, withdrawing his fingers. “You will not release until I have done so.”

L nodded his head, straining against the bindings when Light pressed his cock through the tight ring of muscles that tried to clamp down and prevent him. Light stilled halfway, letting him adjust.

“God… Kira…” L gasped, rocking back as much as he could. Light caught his hips, pressing in deeply. “God…”

Light began to move; slowly at first, whilst L continued to loosen and open up for him. L’s gasping of his chosen name spurred him on, his thrusts gradually speeding up, becoming deeper and harder. He wrapped his hand in a ring around the base of L’s cock as the detective’s gasps became wordless, holding him back.

“You will please your God first,” he commanded, tightening his grip.

“God,” L pleaded. Light’s hips snapped forward forcefully; long fingers slid over the floor, wrists pulling against the bindings. “God, please…”

With his free hand, Light snatched the cane from the bed, striking down across L’s shoulder blades – not hard enough to leave a mark, but enough that L clamped down tight around him as he cried out.

Light’s thrusts sped up as he let go, heat surging through him at L’s exclamation. Fingers gripped tight enough to bruise as he came.

“Kira… please…”

Through his orgasm, Light did not ignore L’s begging, fisting his hand around the detective’s cock and quickly bringing him past the edge with him.


	2. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second part of the cliffhanger from the DD murder case; Near meets B.

A figure stepped into the room; short, clothed in plain white pyjamas, messy white hair falling over grey eyes. He hit the pause button on the computer, plunging the room into silence.

“Beyond Birthday.” His childlike voice acknowledged. Beyond laughed; a loud, Shinigami laugh, his teeth bared. “Would you like to play a game?”

“Near…” in a sinister whisper, “That's my lullaby!”

Near rolled his eyes, settling into a familiar crouch on the floor, knees close to his chest and pulling out his finger puppets from his pockets. "Could you drop the crazy for a second? It's rather irritating."

“Done,” Beyond giggled, falling silent for very literally just one second before scuttling forwards on all fours, twisting so that his head was upside down with all four limbs still planted on the floor.

Near glanced up, "Childish."

"Look who's talking," Beyond waved a hand at the rapidly expanding collection of toys. There was even one of him; exactly like the one of L, but with a red-scarred face.

"Touché," Near flicked a tarot card at the glass; the chariot, representing energy - but directed, energy, not the chaotic kind Beyond displayed. A suggestion for Beyond to focus. It also stood for determination and ambition, so Beyond's eyes flicked to Near; of course, the child had a reason for wanting to be there. Ambition? To be L, or greater than L - the one ambition the two of them shared.

"I'm bored..." Beyond whined, holding his unnatural pose.

Near was unimpressed. "I know how that feels."

"... but I must say, if I’d had to bet from what that pathetic frog man has been saying these last two years, I’d have expected Mello here, not you."

Near's emotionless eyes flashed; anger recognisable only to a fellow Wammy's boy. "Things change."

Ah. Cameron had said something about there being two detective teams after him rather than one. And L had asked him if he had come into contact with Near. This little boy had L running scared, and he hadn’t even done anything yet. How interesting.

Instead of showing interest, Beyond cackled. "You lost."

"I came second." Near spat, the self-loathing in his voice painful even to hear. “If you can't beat the game, if you can't solve the puzzle, you're nothing but a loser.”

B finally straightened his head, upright rather than upside down. Blood red eyes, visible to Near from having had contact with a Death Note, bore into the child. "You lost."

Near's eyes betrayed lasting bitterness. " ... yes. I lost this battle. But I will win the war."

The boy flicked another tarot card at the glass; The Wheel of Fortune. It landed reversed; change, for the worse. But the other meaning of the card was that the world continued to turn; Near would get his chance again.

"So did I," B giggled falsely, sitting back on his heels so he could wave his arms in the air as he spoke. "Look, we have something in common! Second place!"

Near sighed. "I'm trying to have a serious conversation, Beyond."

Beyond covered his mouth with a hand for effect, gawping like a fish. "Why? I thought you said you wanted to play a game..."

"My game," Near emphasised. "Not yours."

"Aww, spoilsport," he saw an opportunity. "You should lighten up a little. Let loose, maybe kill a few people yourself. That usually helps. Hey, I’ll even point out a few who will only die anyway, give you a head start, what do you say?"

"Psycho." Near replied.

"Well, that's a given," Beyond laughed. "But such an insufficient label."

Beyond pulled his best affronted expression, rocking; toe to heel, a ticking clock.

"How long can you keep this up?" Near sighed again.

"Long as you like, kid, I'm easy," Beyond purred the last words before he had the chance to decide whether being sexually suggestive in conversation with a thirteen-year-old was inappropriate. Having concluded that it definitely wasn’t, he resolved to do so more often.

Near looked almost bored, though. Of course, he had grown up around Mello; a kindred spirit with Beyond, he thought, though he had never met the boy. L could have been projecting when he described the pair.

"Stand up and pull yourself together," Near sounded impatient. "I have a proposal for you and I’m not talking to you whilst you're playing the fool."

"Playing?"

"Playing." Near was definitely not getting the usual effect from Beyond's crazy. "Drop the crazy mask, B."

Beyond hissed; this was getting him nowhere. It was no fun when they didn't know how to play.

"Would you like the L one?" Beyond asked, fairly confident it would be suitable for the child's purposes.

"I would like the you one."

Beyond scowled; why the fuck would he want that? It certainly hadn't been welcomed at Wammy's - schooled out of him by the time he was six or seven.

"I'm not sure who that is anymore," Beyond admitted wryly. He giggled. "It _might_ be the crazy one."

"Try."

Beyond took a breath, cracked his neck, and began to gradually straighten. Every joint cracked as he moved, his legs first, so that he was doubled over at the waist, his hips, his back (the worst cracking of all) and finally his shoulders and his neck until he stood his full six foot three, emphasising just how skeletally thin he truly was. He reached up, feeling the need to smooth his wild hair down, then crossed his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes, waiting impatiently.

"Happy?" He finally snapped at Near, his voice even startling himself; without the childishness of L's or the lilt of the crazy, his voice had developed since he had last used his true sound; deep and rumbling, dangerous and threatening. He blinked.

"Delighted," Near studied him with a casual curiosity; evaluating and grading whether Beyond beneath the masks lived up to his expectations. Beyond was long past feeling uncomfortable about anything, but he didn’t like the experience all the same. He pictured plucking out the eyes of the fellow Wammy’s child for his impertinence. He wondered if he could manage it with only his fingers without bursting them.

"So, what, pray tell, is your plan?" he rumbled.

Near flicked another Tarot card to his feet; The Hanged Man - its meaning a crossroads with only two choices; each one final. However, Beyond suspected Near was quite happy with a literal interpretation too, since he had come here and was happily speaking with a serial killer. Death, and murder.

"We disassemble L."

Beyond laughed, his true Shinigami laugh; that hadn't changed. He delighted in Near’s word choice. _Disassemble._ Beyond pictured where he would make the cuts, break the joints and disarticulate the corpse, then perhaps pin it all back together in his own arrangement, a literal puppet to go with his collection of psychological ones.

"What do I get out of it?" he questioned anyway.

“You get to do the disassembling,” Near suggested easily. Well, Beyond wouldn’t ever expect a true Wammy’s boy to be squeamish about murder, after all.

“I like the way you think,” Beyond grinned; a Shinigami grin. It seemed that hadn’t changed either. “What about after? This cell?”

“Actually, I imagine you will be dead,” Near was casual again.

“Imagine?”

“There is a 72% probability,” Near confirmed.

“Ah, of course.” Such odds would perhaps have discouraged anyone else, but not Beyond. Indeed, he had intended to die years before in his plan to defeat L last time. Locked away in a cell, there was only so much amusement he could obtain from his puppets, no matter how well controlled. “You know how to please, don’t you kid?”

“I'm sure Kira will give you quite a send-off,” Near tossed another Tarot card; Judgement. Rebirth, resurrection, a final decision – all of these embodied in the card, but again Beyond considered that this was meant literally; he expected it was meant to embody Kira.

“And what do we do with the pieces?” Beyond asked, knowing that the meaning of ‘pieces’ was less literal than he would like to interpret it; Near wasn’t actually intending to slice up L, only dismantle what L was, as the world’s greatest detective. Beyond might simply add his own interpretation in the process. “Once we've disassembled L?”

“Whatever we like,” Near shrugged. “To the victor go the spoils.”

Beyond growled, dark and low. “Except there will be no we.”

“No.”

“You intend to use me get the win.”

“Yes.”

So, he intended to cheat, this child, and he was happy with that. Beyond liked him more by the moment.

“Hmm…” Beyond caught his chin, pretending to consider deeply. He fixed a Shinigami grin on the child, who was looking up from his toys, waiting for his answer. “Inspired. Yes… yes, I could get behind this plan. What do you need from me?”

“You,” Near told him simply. “And the activation key for all your puppets.”

Ah; so Near needed someone who wasn’t afraid to make a little mess, spill a little blood. And, he needed Beyond’s now worldwide network of pawns. He was planning on a large scale, then.

“Okay,” Beyond agreed. “Let’s play.”

Near nodded, emotionless to anyone but a Wammy’s boy, but Beyond could see his satisfaction with the answer.

“First,” he told Beyond, sweeping his toys together and pocketing them. “We need to get you out of here.”

“Do you have a plan for that?” Beyond wondered, half expecting a wall to explode or something obvious to occur, something that would be difficult to cover up, no doubt.

“I wonder how much influence you have with your puppets?” Near asked him. “Now would be a good time to show off.”

Beyond grinned.

“Oh, Near, you already know me too well.”

Beyond moved to his desk, collecting from the drawers a number of items that he should not possess, including a full guard’s uniform. He donned this, ignoring Near’s presence as he stripped down to his underwear, showing all of his burned skin. He could feel the boy’s eyes on him as he changed; thirteen, he reminded himself; a perfectly good age to die, but not to fuck, no matter how smart his mouth was.

He turned back to Near once he was fully dressed in the guard’s uniform, tugging the hat down on his head.

“It’s rude to stare,” he taunted. “Even if I am devilishly handsome. I’m flattered, really.”

“And I thought we had dropped the crazy.”

Beyond laughed; a Shinigami laugh.

“You asked for _Beyond Birthday,_ you’ve got him,” he purred, glancing up at the top right corner of his cell and in it the main security camera. He lifted a hand and waved at it; it didn’t much matter who was on guard duty that day.

The glass slid back slowly into the wall; one foot, then two; as far as it could go. Beyond flipped a bag full of his meagre possessions over his shoulder (including several items from the guard’s weapon supply, and guns they had brought in for him from home). Casually, he strode out of the cell, long legs covering far more ground than his crawl.

He walked straight past Near to open the main door of the Hannibal cell, sweeping up the computer as he passed it.

“When do we begin?”


	3. Resistance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Light tries another game he thinks L might be interested in. L is such a troll when he disapproves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was just rereading this and about to warn you about the crackiness of this chapter, which is rather the point (L's still an arsehole) however, there is genuinely a surprising amount of plot & also relationship development in this chapter that may not be apparent at first glance.

L couldn’t help but think it was his fault.

He’d spoiled their game – not that it hadn’t been fun, in the end, but if only he had trusted Light-Kira from the start it could have been a thousand times better.

It was difficult to trust, even now. He didn’t pretend that Light-Kira was a tamed creature; far from it. He didn’t even want him to be. The game Light had suggested was ideal, was everything L could have hoped for – not that he would have appreciated it if his name really had been written in the notebook, but he would have made the most of the time he had left.

He would likely have made sure to sneak a message to Near, though, to make sure that Kira would be stopped before he would be God of the New World, and if he had sent the message and been wrong he wasn’t sure he would have been able to call Near off. He had told him he was compromised, after all.

Fortunately, he hadn’t contacted Near, and it had all been a game. He was sore, but in a really rather wonderful way – every movement reminding him of the pleasure from before. He tried to work, to find cases for them to solve, but he was distracted and he was not in any mood to complain about that.

It was only hours later that L thought to check the notebook, opening to the last, most well described and torturous entry. He stared at the name on the page. Not his own, but completed – a real name on a very real and very gruesome Death Note entry.

“Light-Kira?”

Light was wearing his pale pink apron, in the middle of baking the house favourite of apple and chocolate chip turnovers. “Yes?”

“… I checked the notebook.”

“Okay.”

Light looked entirely unfazed; this was usually L’s speciality and for a moment it threw him. When challenged about his actions as Kira, Light was usually defensive. Now, he didn’t even seem to care. Possibilities raced for highest probability in L’s calculations. He stilled that train of thought impatiently; too much emotion was involved; the numbers would be skewed.

“You wrote a name,” he prompted instead, setting the book down on the kitchen countertop.

“Huh-huh,” still unfazed. The little hairs on the back of L’s neck stood up. Matching the hair on his head, but it was an uncomfortable feeling.

“Earlier. A name.”

“…Well, yes.” Light frowned at him like that should be obvious.

“On the entry from before.”

“Yes.”

Was there perhaps some sort of loophole L didn’t know about? Something that would mean that Light’s unaffected expression did not just show that he was about to cackle a Shinigami laugh and run L through with the spatula he was holding?

On second thoughts, he would probably use a knife.

“…From our game,” L prompted. He would have his explanation, one way or another.

“Yes.”

It seemed L was going to have to spell it out for him. Surely the reason for his concern was obvious?

“...But you don’t kill that way.”

“Don’t I?” Light challenged, continuing to mix the ingredients for the turnover’s chocolate mirror glaze frosting.

“No.”

Light-Kira sought Justice; even those who had opposed him when he was killing in an uncontrolled manner were spared any torturous deaths; they died quickly and whilst L would admit he didn’t have an issue with punishment for these horrible criminals, he did take issue with disproportionate punishment. That was torture, and was one of the limits he had given Near to trigger intervention.

“I was bored.”

No, Light wasn’t doing this. Couldn’t be doing this; if he had, L would have to stop it, or at least, he would have to allow Near to do so.

“You were cruel.”

“Maybe.”

“Light-Kira...”

“What are you going to do about it, L?” There was mischief in the look Light shot him then. He had finished stirring the frosting, and held up the spatula for L. He did not move to take it, despite the fact that he was refusing sugar, and so Light shrugged, lapping some of the frosting from the spatula himself. In other circumstances L would have licked it out of Light’s mouth, or spread it across his body and licked it from him… no, he could not be distracted so easily. He was the world’s greatest detective; he had to get to the bottom of this.

“This isn’t a game Light.”

“Isn't it?” Light asked him. That mischief was still there, and something else besides.

“No.”

What was he thinking? Had something happened? Had Light-Kira finally snapped? Was what happened earlier just some final fling, before he would kill L?

L supressed the calculations that tried to start up again.

“Pity. See, I was rather thinking...”

_What?_

“I broke the rules.”

L hesitated. What was Light-Kira doing? Did he have a death wish?

“…Yes.”

“Well, what happens when people break the rules?” Light still just looked mischievous, and that other emotion that L could not place, but that he had only ever seen directed at him from the younger man.

“They go to prison,” L was blunt about it, not wanting to consider the potential games Light-Kira would play.

“Sometimes. But that’s not what I was thinking,” he looked vaguely frustrated now.

“They get the death penalty?”

Light chuckled. He put the turnovers in the oven, removing the pink apron and folding it neatly.

“No, L.”

“Then tell me, oh arrogant one, what happens?”

“They are punished.”

L glared. “That’s what I said.”

“That’s what you were thinking, not what you said,” Light left the kitchen, moving to lounge in his chair near L. L studied him, keeping his calculations at bay whilst still trying to work out what Light was thinking; the two aims clashed, and neither thought process was able to progress.

“Murderers are punished by prison or the death penalty,” he stated simply.

“Think outside the box a little, detective,” Light grinned at him, loosening his tie and beginning to unbutton his shirt. L moved closer, drawn in by temptation, until he was stood over Light with his usual hunched back.

“…Oh.”

“There we go.”

L was stunned, gawping like a fish. “You want me to punish you?”

“If you wouldn’t mind,” the handsome eighteen-year-old had completely unbuttoned his shirt and was trailing fingers along his chest, lingering at his nipples and teasing them. L stared.

“…Not at all.” Still, he couldn’t – shouldn’t, at the very least – let go of his original purpose for this conversation. Light had to understand that what he had done was wrong. “But, Light-Kira...”

“Yes?”

“That was a real entry. In the notebook?”

“Yes.”

“So that man is dead?”

“Yes.”

L fell silent, frowning at Light. Did he really not understand?

“You're welcome to check if you like,” Light offered impatiently, gesturing to the computer array. L didn’t want to see, couldn’t bear to see the police photos if this was really the truth.

“That was a needlessly brutal and cruel way to kill,” L pointed out, scolding.

“He only got what he deserved,” Light huffed.

“No one deserves that much suffering.”

“He only suffered as much as he rightly should,” Light impressed on L, frustrated.

“Light-Kira...” L began but was interrupted.

“L, don’t make me spoil the game,” Light sighed, scowling at him.

“What...?” L reeled back a few steps, snapping out of the haze of suspicion and desire that this supposed resurgence of Kira had summoned up in him.

“If you really have to, check the death records. Even the police should have documented it by now.”

“Light, this stopped being a game the moment you really killed that way...” L explained. Light just sighed, loudly.

“The notebook has limits,” he spoke in a bored monotone.

“Limits?”

“Limits. It can’t do the impossible.”

L considered. “What are you talking about?”

“The killer was in Spain,” Light pointed out.

“Yes,” L recalled the case clearly.

“I specifically mentioned America.”

Oh. Yes, now L thought about it, he had. That had made a lot of sense, when he had been playing at writing L’s name, but considering that he specified a time of death in one hour, and the location of America, the death should be impossible. L had been too quick to jump into action, not thinking things through. It wasn't like him. He had to stop emotion clouding his judgement again.

“You did.”

“And a time of death in exactly one hour.”

“Yes.” L was blushing. He should have thought about this before he panicked and questioned Light about it.

“Well, it can’t do that,” Light pointed out. L nodded, accepting the simple fact.

“A person can’t go from Spain to America in just one hour,” he agreed. Well, that much was obvious – he should have seen it before. Still, he hadn’t been present during Light’s early experiments with the Death Note. This could be an opportunity to learn more about it; an opportunity that he wouldn’t miss.

“No.”

“But then wouldn’t the method of death remain the same?” L asked curiously, and also still a little concerned.

“No. He would just die of a heart attack,” Light explained. “If one condition of the death is impossible, the whole thing is wrong except the death of the person whose name is written.”

“Oh.” L shouldn’t have worried.

“Yes, oh,” Light huffed.

“All a part of the game?” L had spoiled it again. He was kicking himself.

“Yes.”

“Sorry,” L was disappointed as Light began to button up his shirt. “I spoiled it this time.”

“You did.”

“... don’t I still get to play?” L pleaded. Light’s fingers stilled as he went to fasten another button. He frowned at L, but eventually released the buttons he had fastened.

“... yes.”

L focused, before he could get too side-tracked.

“Safe word?” he spoke quickly, the word coming out garbled.

“Pardon?” Light asked politely.

“Do you have a safe word?” L clarified.

“Oh,” Light considered, and then smirked evilly. “Socks.”

L had a bitter taste in his mouth at the very suggestion. The thought made him almost want to stop playing their game right away.

“Don’t use it unless you really mean it,” he warned, trying to rid himself of the discomfort of the thought. Light laughed at him.

“What do you have against…”

“Really, don’t,” L warned.

“I will find out why one day,” Light chuckled.

“Now I have a whole other reason to punish you,” L suggested impatiently. Light’s tie was still around his neck, unfastened. L caught both ends, using it like a leash to bring Light through to the bedroom. Light complied without complaint, hovering in the doorway. “You’re not going to kneel?”

“Not a chance,” Light smirked. “You’ll have to make me.”

L liked the idea, honestly, he did. But he also had no idea what he was doing; this was, after all, an aspect of human interaction that he was not skilled at manipulating.

“Can you at least come into the room so I can close the door?” L requested. His heart was racing, and not necessarily in a nice way. He comforted himself by searching through their purchases from before.

“Hey,” Light was not a fool, he recognised L’s discomfort. He engulfed the slighter man in his arms, nuzzling his neck. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t…”

“I want to,” the words fell out of L’s mouth too quickly. “I just…”

“Don’t know where to start?” Light guessed. L nodded. It felt like admitting weakness.

Light let go, picking out a set of metal handcuffs from the bag. “How about these?”

L frowned. It had been established that he was no expert in these matters, but where the cuffs Light had used to restrain him had been soft, these looked like they could do some serious damage. However, he supposed he wouldn’t have to put Light into such an awkward position, and…

An idea surfaced.

“Strip,” L ordered, snatching the cuffs out of his hand and turning to Light.

Light took a step back, removing his clothing. L snatched each item, not letting him fold them.

“If that’s the punishment, it’s not good enough,” Light warned him as L discarded the now creased items on the floor.

“Shut up and lay down,” L snapped. Light couldn’t help but be amused – at least, until L suddenly moved and knocked his feet out from under him so that he toppled backwards on to the bed. The detective took up his fighting crouch; a warning. “Get yourself comfortable, whatever position you choose you might be there for a while.”

Light took him seriously, arranging himself comfortably on the bed with his back half propped up on the pillows.

L clicked the handcuffs closed around his wrists, looping the chain through the headboard first.

“Comfortable?” he checked. Light moved, making sure.

“Yes.”

“Then we can begin.”

* * *

 

L had been gone for half an hour.

Light was starting to think that something had gone wrong, or that Mello and Ryuk had come back and L had forgotten about him. It was all well and good to be left in suspense but there were limits, and Light’s was rapidly approaching.

The only reason he had waited this long was that he wouldn’t put it past L to have cameras watching him waiting for him to give in.

Just as he was starting to think he would have to do so, L came back into the room carrying a large slice of strawberry cream cake.

They hadn’t even had any cream cake in the house. He had actually gone shopping and bought cake whilst Light was tied to the bed.

Light tried not to be furious.

L perched at the end of the bed, his favourite crouch.

It would help if he would acknowledge Light, but he didn’t say a word. He just glanced at him briefly and then turned his attention to the cake.

Light watched him eat. L’s return had stirred him into readiness again, despite his frustration, and he appreciated that L was trying to build the suspense, but still. He was losing his patience quickly.

L seemed quite happy to just sit there and eat cake. He made delighted noises as he did so; it must be good cake.

When he left the room and brought back a second slice, Light finally broke.

“L?” he demanded the detective’s attention, but he didn’t get it. L paused as he lifted a mouthful of cake to his mouth, smiled a little, and then continued to eat.

Light had enough. He was laid there, hard and ready and waiting for L to join him and L was too fascinated by his cake to play.

“L, you’re meant to be punishing me,” Light grumbled.

“I am,” L lifted a mouthful of cake, turning it round on the fork as he studied it from every angle. “I have cake, you don’t.”

Light frowned. Seriously, this was the best L could do? Make him wait and eat cake. Alright.

“I don’t even like cake,” Light reminded the detective, slumping his weight back into the pillows.

“It’s still punishment.”

Light glared. “Have I told you how fucking weird you are?”

“Not recently,” L shrugged, carefully dissecting the cake away from the frosting, eating only the cake.

“Well,” Light huffed. “You are.”

L glanced up at him, a malicious smirk spreading.

He took a bit of frosting on his fork and flicked it onto the head of Light’s cock. Light jolted at the sudden cold and wet.

“What the hell?” Light grumbled, unable to wipe the mess without his hands free.

“You’re just jealous,” L purred, eating a little more cake, “that I’m eating this cream and not yours.”

Light gawped at him. His shoulders suddenly shook with laughter.

“Fucking hell, L, that’s a bloody awful line,” he managed between laughs.

“Yes,” L grinned. “You see? Punishment.”

L returned to eating his cake, leaving the cream frosting aside. Now that Light was attuned to L’s purpose, the noises he was making as he enjoyed the cake were positively sinful.

“L,” he gasped when the next piece of cake was done and the detective went to go get another. “Please, haven’t I been punished enough?”

L paused, nipping a finger tip between his teeth, thinking.

“Light-Kira has been very patient,” he allowed eventually, returning to the bed with the plate covered with frosting. “There is one more punishment for you, though.”

“Lay it on me,” Light suggested, shifting a little as L crawled over him, trying to find it sexy rather than weird.

“I’m glad you put it that way,” L grinned, and turned the frosting covered plate upside down on Light’s chest.

“L!” Light exclaimed, recoiling as much as he could from the mess.

“Punishment,” L reminded him, removing the plate and spreading the frosting with his hands. He slicked it over the whole of Light’s chest, over his cock and down his thighs.

“Okay,” Light accepted, steeling himself as he tolerated the mess.

L got up and left the room.

“I’m going to fucking kill you!” Light screamed after him, tugging against the handcuffs.

“Kira should be careful,” L reminded him from the doorway, glancing back and watching the usually impeccably neat man squirm. “He wouldn’t want to earn any more punishment.”

“L fucking Lawliet, come back here right now!” Light yelled as L walked out of the door.

Light was fairly sure this was his punishment for mentioning socks.

He squirmed, trying not to think about the sticky frosting coating most of his body. He bit his lip, trying to distract himself with pain; a far more pleasant sensation.

L must have known how much this would distress him. He was the world’s greatest detective; and he had been observing and living with Light for months. He must have seen Light’s myxophobia – his irrationally excessive discomfort with anything slimy or gooey, like this cream.

L’s head poked round the door, a cloth and a bowl in his hands.

“L,” Light spoke in a warning tone. His arousal had almost entirely waned. “Untie me.”

“No,” L smiled, reassuring. “Your punishment is over. Light-Kira did so well.”

“Then untie me,” Light grumbled. L shook his head, setting the bowl down to move over Light.

His long and dextrous tongue began to lap the frosting away from his shoulder with little licks.

Light gasped, eyes going wide. If he hadn’t still been mostly covered with cream he thought his arousal would have returned with full force. As it was he was conflicted, instincts warring with one another.

“I’ll clean you up,” L promised, swiping his tongue in one long stroke, catching Light’s nipple and swirling around it a little as he passed, “and then, since you’ve been so good, you get to decide whether I fuck you or you fuck me.”

“Yes,” Light breathed, relaxing back into the pillows. It seemed L had thought this through after all. With every stroke of his tongue Light was able to relax more as the awful frosting was removed, and L’s tongue heated the skin below.

By the time L had worked down his abdomen, Light was hard and ready again. He wasn’t sure he would be able to tolerate any more of this treatment, but L spotted this before he had to say anything, collecting the water and cloth and cleaning him off with a few quick but thorough sweeps.

“You or me?” L asked, moving up to kiss him soundly on the lips; Light almost recoiled from the taste of frosting on his lips but relaxed. This was L; L always tasted of sweets.

“…you,” Light decided, not sure himself what he was going to say until the word escaped him. He wanted nothing more than to have the cuffs released and to fuck L hard, to take out his frustrations on the detective for the bizarre actions he had taken so far, but he would be too rough; he couldn’t push too far, not without L stopping him. Besides, this was meant to be L’s turn, trying something new. “I want to feel you inside me.”

“I’ll have to use some lubricant,” L warned him, but slicked his fingers with their handy bottle from the bedside drawers without waiting for an answer. Light hesitated, but nodded; this was very different than the mess L had made before.

He had never done this, so L’s long and searching fingers were a godsend, sliding inside one and then two without too much stretch, working him open. He arched his back up off the bed before he realised he was even going to do it, and L snatched a pillow, quickly inserting it below his back to make his position easier.

L had his bottom lip between his teeth, concentrating hard on his task. Light watched him until a sudden pressure and pleasure jolted him from head to toe as L found what he was so focused on inside him. He groaned, closing his eyes tightly.

“Kira,” L breathed the word right beside Light’s cock, the vibrations making him shake. “Forgive me. I am unworthy to think I could punish a God.”

Light grabbed tightly at the headboard bars to stop himself from trying to reach down and grab L’s hair, the handcuffs clinking against the bars.

L had used the distraction to press a third finger through tight muscles. There was a stretch now, a pressure that was not entirely unpleasant but that Light couldn’t convince himself he enjoyed, either, until L found that spot inside him again and he was rocking his hips in time with that hand.

“I am blessed,” L spoke again as the stretching sensation eased a little, becoming more pleasurable. “To be allowed to please my God, to be allowed this honour…”

“L!” Light gasped, his eyes snapping open and to the detective’s face, his searching gaze. “Now, please.”

L did not waste time, his hand leaving Light, fisted his cock with his lubricated hand for a few strokes and then wiped his fingers swiftly with the cloth and water so that he would not spread any excess of the sticky lubricant elsewhere to distract Light.

“I’m not sure you’re ready,” L admitted, aligning his cock with Light’s entrance but not pressing in.

“I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life,” Light snapped, lifting his hips and trying to take L inside. With the handcuffs it was impossible to manoeuvre.

It would be a lie when Light would assure L later that there had been no pain; he struggled to relax and allow the detective in. L was perceptive, and went slowly, but Light was demanding and vocal, and would not allow him to remain so for long.

“I can’t come this way,” he eventually concluded even as L was thrusting into him hard, every stroke hitting that most pleasurable spot inside him but never bringing him close to the edge. He was disappointed; almost jealous that L had done so easily. “L, my hands…”

L nipped the skin over his collar bone with his teeth, silencing him. His long, thin fingers wrapped around Light’s cock, stroking firmly, the thumb swiping precum to lubricate the motions.

Light tensed, tension building rapidly, the cuffs biting at his wrists as he arched from the bed. L followed him, thrusts no longer hitting the perfect spot but it didn’t matter; Light was too far gone, and L’s hand was moving still, and he had been building to this orgasm for almost an hour. He came, the sticky fluid coating his stomach and bringing him crashing down again, gasping for breath.

L drew out of him, still hard, watching him silently. He retrieved the washcloth, cleaning the mess away.

“L,” Light pleaded, scowling at the detective. “You didn’t…”

It seemed, however, that L wasn’t done. He had only paused, consideration for Light’s discomfort winning out over his own desire.

When he entered Light again, his movements were steady, almost reverent. He whispered in Light’s ear, praise for Light, and for Kira. Pleas to not be forced to punish Light again, to be allowed to worship him instead. Somehow, Light understood that he didn’t just mean as part of their game.

“I won’t betray you, L,” Light swore, wishing his hands were free so that he could turn L’s head towards him, rather than allowing the detective to avoid his gaze.

L came with a shuddering gasp.


	4. Devotion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Light is a liar, but L is wise to this now. Mello... isn't.

“We’re not doing that again,” Light asked L as he dried his hair from his shower.

“Punishing you?” L considered from the bed. Though the detective had showered, dried off and put on his clothes, he had returned there to relax in a continued satisfied daze, his hair still damp.

“Yes,” Light confirmed.

“I agree,” L nodded with conviction, smiling a little.

“L?” Light scowled, suddenly suspicious.

“Yes?”

“Did you deliberately make that really fucking weird just so I wouldn’t want to do it again?”

“…Yes,” L smiled creepily.

“Seriously?” Light huffed. “You only want Kira, then?”

L sighed, shaking his head. “It’s not that.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you think you should be punished?” L asked, sitting up and meeting Light’s eyes, looking worried. “For using the Death Note? For… being Kira?”

Light opened his mouth to answer no, but paused, taking the question seriously.

It was true that he was certain his intentions as Kira were good. But, it was also true that he was the one that had asked to be punished, that had started this game in the first place, so that must mean there was at least something underlying in his subconscious. He considered carefully.

When he had started as Kira, he knew that using the notebook to kill would make him a murderer. The fact that he was killing only those who were truly horrible made that alright in his eyes, but even Ryuk had once joked that he would be the only evil one left when he created his new world. He wasn’t insecure about his actions as Kira, but there was perhaps a part of him that did recognise that killing was still wrong, even if it was justified. He wasn’t going to stop, the goal more important than the way it was achieved. He didn’t think he needed to be punished for being Kira, but he did find some relief in it.

The way L was considering him, though, implied a far deeper meaning to his question. Light figured L was uncertain. He had allowed Light the Note, allowed him to carry on, but if even Kira thought Kira should be punished, had he done the wrong thing? Did he care?

“Not for what I do now,” Light suggested to L honestly. “Not for killing criminals who would kill others if I didn’t. It’s just… I thought it might good to be able to give up control, once in a while. Not all the time. To trust you. And, if I were really killing like I wrote in the Notebook, torturing and bloodthirsty like that, I’d like to think you would still stop me. I’d trust you to stop me.”

L nodded, considering.

“And I’d like you to trust me to not do that,” Light continued. L opened his mouth to speak, but Light silenced him with a finger to his lips, sitting on the edge of the bed beside him. “I know it’s hard. I know what I am, L, and I know who you are. But I need you to believe me when I tell you I’m not going to kill you.”

“I do believe you,” L lied, even now, but the words were bitter on his tongue.

“Liar,” Light caught it. L shrugged, sighing.

“It’s down to two percent,” L allowed sadly. Light frowned at him, shaking his head.

“I’ve given up my new world for you,” he complained. “I’ve given you everything I had. My life in Japan, my ability to have a successful career in the NPA – I know I’m working with you now, L, but no one knows that. All I have is here with you.”

“I know that. I suppose that’s why I’m worried it won’t be enough.”

“It’s enough,” Light promised. He frowned at the floor, unable to meet L’s eyes. “You’re enough.”

“Light?”

“I think I love you, L.”

“Liar.”

L’s word hurt more than Light had expected it would, stabbing like a knife. Light bit his lip to stop himself from shouting, arguing. He had been trying so hard, doing everything L asked or expected of him. He had bent to the detective’s will, had followed where he led and had been patient when the detective had accused him – again – of killing out with the rules L set. Perhaps it wasn’t the truth – not yet, anyway. It was hard to love someone who wouldn’t allow you to get close, who didn’t trust you. But… he was almost starting to think it _could_ be, in time.

“I’m not lying,” he promised patiently.

“Light-Kira,” L scowled at him. “On a good day you score extremely highly on every test for sociopathy and psychopathy I have ever used in my investigations. This would suggest that any emotions you experience are conscious manipulation of others, or perhaps even of yourself.”

“You believe this, but you continue to pursue a relationship between us?” Light questioned.

“Yes.”

“I’m not made of stone, L,” Light considered the bruising that had formed on his wrists where he had strained against the handcuffs. “I will admit to a certain detachment from most people, even from my family sometimes. That’s why this stands out so much, why I can be absolutely sure. I’ve never felt like this before… I’ve never _felt_ like this.”

L was silent for a very long time. Light thought, perhaps, that he had convinced him with this truth. No, it wasn’t love, couldn’t be love, but he did c _are_ about L. He worried about him when he was in danger, was upset when he was upset, was happy when he was happy. What was that, if not the building blocks of love?

“Light-Kira intends to manipulate me with false promises,” L finally concluded. “Gods do not love their worshippers.”

“Even Gods can fall in love,” Light reminded. “How do you kill a Shinigami, L?”

“Gods of Death are neither as clever nor as powerful as Light-Kira,” L offered the biting praise without hesitation, without doubt. What should have been a benediction was instead a dagger through Light, and he had to remind himself that he didn’t care.

“And yet still I love you, even if I hate you sometimes,” Light swore. He shook his head sadly. What was the point in all of this, all that he was giving up, all that he was doing for L if the detective wouldn’t even believe that he actually felt for him, that this wasn’t all a manipulation anymore? “Don’t believe me, then. I’ll give you whatever time you need. I hope, one day, you’ll realise I’m not lying.”

“I hope so too,” L smiled, also dejected.

Light leaned down and pressed a kiss to his lips. L’s hands clutched at his arms, pulling the younger man on top of him.

“Kira…” he purred when they parted. Light licked the sugar taste off his lips, closing his eyes a moment and summoning up the personality L wanted; the darkness beneath the mask.

“L,” he stepped into the role seamlessly, catching the detective’s hands and pinning them. “You think you have caught Kira? You think you can punish a god?”

L struggled weakly against the restraint, lips curling in a smirk. “Yep.”

“No. Gods are not ruled by men,” Light growled. L gasped, pupils blowing.

“Kira...”

The breathy word nipped at Light’s patience. “Perhaps your god should punish you?”

L hesitated. “We only just got cleaned up.”

“We can shower again after,” Light scowled. L had started this; he was going to stop now?

“Light-Kira… I heard the front door,” L told him.

“Oh.” Light released L’s wrists. Well, if that didn’t put a damper on things.

“Mello's back,” L reminded him. Light glanced at the bedroom door, realising that it hadn’t been locked since the last time L had left to get the bowl of water.

“Fuck.”

Before he could move off of L, Ryuk’s large form phased through the wall.

“Nope, no fuck! Kids in the house!” Ryuk flopped down onto the bed beside them, propping his head up on one long arm. “Hey, Light, we've got some juicy ones! Apples I mean, but Akane says the cases are pretty good too!”

Light sighed, sitting back on his heels. L curled into his deductive crouch. “What if you'd interrupted something, Ryuk?”

“I've asked you not to go through the wall,” L reminded the Shinigami.

“Argh, I don’t mind -might be fun,” Ryuk cackled, running a single claw over L’s collar bone. L tried to slap the hand away with both of his flapping frantically, but the Shinigami phased his hand out.

“Ryuk!”

“Hey, you're safe, since I'm not allowed to join in and all,” Ryuk did sound despondent.

“Concerning that you want to...” Light grumbled, sharing a sympathetic glance with L.

“Who said I want to? You're not all that pretty, Light kid,” Ryuk shared a shark toothed grin.

“Yes he is,” L snapped back, defensive, pulling Light to his chest like an oversized teddy bear. Light untangled his arms, separating from him again.

“Hey, there's no rule against watching though,” Ryuk told them sincerely. “Could be fun.”

“Yeah, Ryuk,” Light laughed, “I'm just not that in to you.”

“Don’t just phase through the wall, okay?” L demanded. Ryuk cackled.

“But it’s okay so long as I knock?” he tried.

“If we say so,” L began just as Light said a resounding “no”.

Light stared at L, wide eyed and shocked. L shrugged.

“Just wanted to give you the option,” he inadequately explained. “I thought you might appreciate being praised by a fellow God.”

“No… just… no, L,” Light frowned. “You’re all that I want.”

“Liar,” L whispered, although he did at least believe Light about the Shinigami.

“Ryuk, never ever come in here while we’re… together,”

“Be specific, kid,” Ryuk’s grin widened when Light was awkward.

“You’re not allowed in the room if L and I are fucking,” Light tried more clearly. Ryuk laughed his Shinigami laugh before complaining.

“Booring.”

“Do you promise?”

“Oookay,” Ryuk agreed too easily. “Now come look at these cases! Akane says you're not allowed to get bored, Kira.”

Ryuk phased through the door.

“Light?” L asked, watching the space where the Shinigami had gone through the wood.

“What? You didn’t seriously want him in here, did you?

“No,” L shrugged. “It’s just, if he can walk through walls, maybe he can see through them, too.”

Light spluttered, about to try to convince himself that wasn’t true when he heard Ryuk shout through from the living room. “And hear through them, too, kid, so hurry up and get out here.”

 

Mello had piled all of the cases onto the living room table and gone to the kitchen to retrieve some chocolate when he arrived home, smelling burning and finding blackened, charred remnants of what had possibly been apple and chocolate chip turnovers in the oven on a very low heat. It seemed L and Light had been carried away. He smiled fondly, but the smile faded when he remembered his bet with Near and the fact that he would not be able to get Near to pay up now that he had left for good.

He took the tray out of the oven, placing it on the cooling rack so that when Light came out of the bedroom he could do something with it – clean it up, he had no idea. He wasn’t domesticated like Kira. The thought made him smile; Light was a mess of contradictions.

Speaking of Kira, it was unusual indeed for him to leave the Death Note lying about, but there it was on the counter. He and L really must have been carried away.

He picked up the Notebook, idly rifling through the pages, taking in the hundreds of names, the people that Light had killed. The last two pages were less heavily populated, often the names were written in different inks. These were the pages that Light must have used since he had been in the company of L.

He turned one more page, expecting it to be blank and finding something he had not expected.

This wasn’t like the other deaths in the Note.

This was a work of pure devotion, a ritual sacrifice, a piece of art. This was hatred and pain and murder all rolled together on a page.

And there was a name. Kira had actually used it.

Mello swallowed, considering the words carefully. He wasn’t familiar with the name, no doubt from one of the red cases L gave to Light for his eyes only, for his amusement and entertainment. He was familiar with the rules of the note, perhaps more so than Light thanks to Ryuk’s friendship, and looked for a loophole in there somewhere but so far as he could tell this was entirely something that would be possible. There were only two criteria here that could break that; the time of death and the location.

He wondered if Ryuk would know, if he asked. He would try anyway when he could speak with Ryuk alone. So as not to arouse suspicion, he returned the book to the counter top where he found it, and retrieved his chocolate instead. He bit off a huge piece, letting it melt in his mouth rather than chewing.

Ryuk phased through L and Light’s door, but put his finger to his lips, pressing his ear against the wood. Mello stayed quiet; whatever mischief Ryuk was pulling, he was happy to be in cahoots with his friend.

“And hear through them, too, kid, so hurry up and get out here.” Ryuk called, moving quickly away from the door before he did.

Ryuk quietly laughed, explaining to Mello that he was going to make them think he could see and hear through walls. Mello considered what he could do to advance this mischief whilst they waited for L and Light.

“Welcome back Mello,” Light greeted enthusiastically, sitting elegantly but not in his own chair; L didn’t make a single comment as Light took his seat, simply coming to perch on the chair as well with his feet between Light’s legs and his back against the younger man’s chest so that Light could wrap his arms around the detective’s waist.

“Aww, cuddle time!” Ryuk inserted himself behind Mello on the couch, lifting him up so that Mello was forced to lounge on his chest. Without hesitation Mello turned to face the Shinigami and hugged him tightly, snuggling into his chest and placing a wet, slobbery kiss there. Ryuk made a little startled sound, phasing out so that Mello fell through him back onto the sofa and returned to his previous position. Sulking, Ryuk perched on the back of the chair instead.

“So, you brought cases?” L picked up the first file, opening it to the first page and then glancing round at Light. “I’ll hold, you turn pages. I read faster than you anyway.”

“Okay,” Light flicked the first page almost immediately, racing with the detective for who could finish the file first. There was no real chance for Light; L was simply the faster reader, but he was improving.

“No good,” L and Light agreed swiftly. “Mello, email them with the L signature and tell them to get a warrant for suspect three’s basement; they’ll find all they need there, they just needed my opinion to convince a judge for a warrant.”

Mello nodded, getting to work.

A couple of hours passed peacefully solving cases, but finding nothing that would be suitable to take on for a longer time. They would be staying in Florida for at least one more day.

“Maybe Watari will find something from the international connections?” Light reassured L, who looked impatient.

“Maybe,” L allowed. He frowned suddenly. “What happened to the apple turnovers?”

“Charcoal,” Mello pointed out the tray on the counter. Light glanced that way, noticing the Notebook still sitting out. He sighed.

“I’d best clean up and make a new batch,” he told L. “You’ll be grumpy in the morning without them.”

“Bring me another slice of the cake while you’re up,” L demanded, softening the request with a kiss.

 

* * *

 

Mello wasn’t surprised when Light and L turned in to sleep early that night; they had clearly had a very active day. He couldn’t blame them; he believed the adage was while the cat’s away…

He had spent some time during the evening considering the Notebook, and the depth of the relationship between L and Light.

L had been worried that Light would go too far and he would be compromised too much to stop him. He had worried that Light would push and push until the world was shaped as he wanted it, until L and the rest bent beneath Kira’s control and no one could stop him.

There was a good chance that this notebook entry meant absolutely nothing, that there had been some loophole that would mean that the death wouldn’t happen. However, since Ryuk couldn’t tell him otherwise, Mello felt a sense of obligation to at least make the one impartial person involved aware of the situation.

He dialled the last number he had used, expecting a dead line.

“Near.”

“Mello,” he was surprised.

“I’ve been expecting your call,” Near told him promptly.

“You have?”

“Yes. Kira is killing again,” Near sounded certain of it. Mello wondered what evidence he had found. “He’s overstepped the rules of the game.”

“Maybe,” Mello said sadly. This whole thing felt like a betray, even though he was sure if L was compromised he would want him, as his heir, to take action. “There’s an entry in the notebook…”

“There’s a box beside the outer entrance to the pool net,” Near told him. “Go get it and come back here.”

Mello did as instructed, opening the box to find about a hundred miniature cameras.

“If Light is using the Note in a way that he shouldn’t, I’ll be able to see it with these,” Near explained. “If he isn’t, we can use the cameras to clear him of all suspicion. There’s no downside, Mello.”

“They’re having sex,” Mello told the younger boy, whose eye twitched. Probably not at the thought of the intimate relationship but instead at having lost their bet.

“I’ll have a grown up watch those bits of footage if it makes you more comfortable,” Near suggested. “Have Ryuk fit the cameras tonight. I will be watching.”

“Okay… Near?”

“Yes, Mello?”

“It really could be nothing, you know,” Mello assured him.

“It could be,” Near agreed. “But the evidence suggests differently. Keep an eye on the news over the next few days. That’s all I’ll say.”


	5. Deflating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some people don't change. They just find new ways to lie.

The lack of suitable case for the team to engage with provided the perfect excuse to get rid of Mello again for the day, leaving Light and L alone again in the villa.

L had, for a rare change, decided to go for a swim in the pool, and Light had joined him for a while but once his fingers started to wrinkle he had left the pool in favour of a warm shower and some rare time alone in the sitting room.

He needed this opportunity; he had so many ideas that he needed to put down on paper. Whilst his muse floated in a large inflatable duck on the pool outside, Light wrote a dozen intelligently crafted scenarios of deaths that would actually be very possible for the Death Note to complete. The plain sheets could not be distinguished from paper from the actual Notebook, which would add to the effect. It was an unusual method of initiating sex, perhaps, but Light was fairly sure their roleplay could be brought about in mere moments if he were to put a name on these sheets and leave them in conspicuous places around the villa for L to find. Some of the pages he put a name to immediately so that he would be able to retrieve them to use at any time.

Once all of the sheets were completed Light carefully hid them away from L, making sure that the detective could not see him from the pool. Task completed, he tore a page out of the real Death Note and took this with a pen out to the pool side.

“I wonder whether it is possible to kill someone with an inflatable duck?” Light puzzled as he watched the detective floating around the pool, using his feet as flippers.

“There have been twelve deaths of adults involving inflatable floatation devices in the last decade,” L quoted. “It is statistically unlikely. Though, I do not believe any of those deaths involved murder.”

“I could do it you know,” Light grinned, waving the Death Note page. “I could get one of the serial killers to go buy an inflatable duck and attempt to kill themselves with it?”

“Better than testing the theory on me,” L agreed. “Although, I believe this may be your way of saying you are feeling neglected, Kira?”

“They say you’re the greatest detective in the world,” Light grumbled. “Don’t play dumb with me. It doesn’t suit you.”

“Hmm,” L continued to float around on the inflatable duck. “You could come up with a better premise than death by rubber duck.”

“How about you come inside, and we just try pretending to be two adults in a healthy relationship for once?” Light suggested, knowing already what the answer would be. L reared up from the duck, looking aghast.

“Lies are only amusing when they’re fun, Light-Kira,” L spoke very seriously. He attempted to take up his deductive crouch but ended up flipping the inflatable, landing face first in the water. He came back up, spluttering and glaring at the duck. Steadily and with malice of forethought, he reached out and unstopped the air valve on the inflatable which made a wheezing noise as it began to shrink.

“You’re right,” Light shrugged, but didn’t write on the paper. He dropped it into the water beside L, watching curiously as it didn’t soak up the liquid. “Looks like we won’t have to change those bracelets of yours any time soon – it isn’t damaged by getting wet.”

Light needed L to see this, see a page ripped from the Death Note that was very obviously from the actual Death Note. That would make all of the other pages, the fake ones he had already written on, seem more real.

“This is reassuring,” L agreed, picking up the page between pinched fingers and offering it back to Light.

“Come inside,” Light demanded. “You can shower whilst I come up with something?”

“If you insist, Light-Kira,” L did not sound at all reluctant, clambering awkwardly out of the pool and ignoring the towel Light offered out to him, going inside dripping wet. Light glared at the wet footprints on the carpet, getting out the cleaning equipment rather than following L through to the bedroom.

Once the living room floor was back in an acceptable state, he collected one of the pre-prepared sheets from their hiding place and adding a name, leaving it on the bottom of the bed for L to find.

L came through to the living room a few minutes later, still damp from his shower. He was holding the page pinched between two fingers and out in front of him at arm’s length.

“Light-Kira,” he began, wary. “I see no loopholes in this that would mean it won’t happen.”

“Good,” Light grinned, getting to his feet and moving to L, catching the wrist of the hand that held out the page and gripping just a little too tightly. “This is Kira’s justice, L. Would you try to stop me?”

“You know I would,” L promised, but it was clear his heart wasn’t in it, still focused on trying to spot the loophole.

Light turned his hand, using the leverage on L’s wrist to force him rather than command him to his knees, his back bent over. The caught hand came to rest in the small of his back. L went with the motion, allowing some degree of trust even though he was still puzzling over the killing method.

“Would you really?” Light taunted. “You bend and bow before Kira, L Lawliet.”

L bit his tongue to hold back a gasp, twisting his wrist in Light’s grasp. The pull on his skin was painful but Light released before any real damage could be done. A part of L was a little disappointed by that, and that same part had him remain on his knees even though he was released.

“You deny Kira’s judgement,” Light was commanding, stood over L with his usual poise and grandeur. L tried to continue to question, truly he did, but his will to do so was gradually slipping, and he realised he was panting just a little as he looked up into Kira’s blood red eyes. “You are angry?”

“Yes, of course,” L tried to growl but it sounded feeble to his own ears.

“You are… jealous,” Light grinned. L gulped, frustrated to have been caught so easily. Light collected the page that had fluttered to the floor nearby, glancing idly over it; he knew what it said anyway. “Because secretly, a part of you wished that was your name on this page, didn’t you?”

“I do not want to die,” L snapped.

“Of course not,” Light grinned. “Not without your reward from Kira. However…”

Light sat in his chair, a distance from L of only a few metres but it felt like an impassable chasm from where L knelt on the floor. The detective briefly considered boldly getting up and approaching but decided that another option appealed more. He crawled, keeping low to the floor, until he was at Kira’s feet.

Light regarded the paper but watched L out of the corner of his eye.

“Would you like that, L?” he asked, setting the paper aside and reaching out a hand to the detective’s cheek, and stroking down until it rested over his throat. “To feel your life in my hands?”

L lifted his hand to cover Light’s, unsure whether to attempt to remove it from his throat or to encourage it to grip more tightly.

“The world around you slipping away as your last breaths are given as sacrifice to Kira?” the grip tightened, almost imperceptibly, but enough for L to drop the hand that rested over Kira’s back to his side, allowing the other man to do as he pleased.

What Kira pleased, it seemed, was to pull L into his lap, grinding up against him. L flushed, finding it difficult to forget about demanding answers despite being sure that this was definitely just another game, another scenario that he would spoil if he didn’t accept Light’s premise. It didn’t matter that he was aroused, his cock hard and sensitive as Light pressed against him through their clothing, that he felt desperate for Light to continue with this premise and dominate him as Kira; he was still L, and he still didn’t like not knowing something. However, he had ruined this game too many times; he felt like a fool for doing so before, and he was not going to spoil things this time.

“Here?” he said instead, glancing around the living room.

“Why not?” Light grinned at him. “We’re alone. If Kira wants you here…”

“Alright,” L agreed hastily, grinding down over Light. The younger man looked briefly surprised before shifting, hands guiding L into the correct posture.

“I wondered whether I could fuck you like this,” he reminded the detective who he had guided into a close mimic of his deductive crouch, but with feet either side of Light’s legs. “This is how you will please Kira.”

L nodded, biting his lip to hold in a groan. They were both still fully clothed, but Light’s fingers worked at the fastening of L’s jeans, moving them just enough to bare just the necessary area. L reciprocated, releasing Light’s cock from its own constraints.

“Prepare yourself,” Light instructed, offering a small bottle of lubricant he had pulled out of its hiding place between the chair’s cushion and arm. He had been planning this, after all. L took the bottle and spread a little across his fingers, then set to applying what he had learned from his research to opening himself ready for Light’s cock. It felt wrong; clinical, deliberate, and he wondered whether Light felt that way when he tried to give him pleasure with his fingers the day before, and whether that was why Light had been so quick to stop him in favour of being fucked with his cock.

Light watched, but did not move to touch him, letting him do all the work. Instead Light’s hand stroked himself almost lazily.

“Please,” L pleaded after a while, desperate for something, anything more than his own fingers.

“You are not ready,” Light scolded, stroking a single finger over the front of L’s jeans that still concealed his hard cock. The sensation was gentle, a tickle rather than a stroke, and L’s hips jolted forward to seek out more.

“Please, Kira,” L considered before he decided what to request; he could ask that Kira simply fuck him, could ask that Kira help to prepare him, or touch him. Or, he could ask for something else, something that might just please both of them more. “I want you to hold my life in your hands.”

“Fuck,” Light muttered, softly enough that L hardly heard him. His expression, carefully controlled until then, flickered to one of unbridled desire. “You would demonstrate your faith to your God?”

“I would,” L agreed desperately.

Light’s hand ran up, over his clothed chest to wrap loosely around his neck.

“Please,” L pleaded, encouraging.

“No,” Light decided, releasing L’s throat and moving his hand up to loosely cover his nose and mouth. “Your God would not have your pretty little neck marked.”

L nodded, careful not to displace the hand.

“Please, God, I need you inside me,” he begged.

“Stay crouched, exactly like that,” Light commanded. “If you can take me inside like that, you can.”

L wiped his lubricated hand clean on his white top, leaving a mess but not caring so long as it didn’t ruin Kira’s clothing. He shifted and wriggled, but took Light’s instruction very literally, not allowing himself to change the angle of his crouch at all and in doing so not managing to find a suitable angle. It was awkward, and it was impossible.

“Pity,” Light chuckled at L’s frustration, so often close but never succeeding. He leaned in a little, speaking in L’s ear. “Turn around?”

L’s eyes widened, but he did, and finally was able to sink down onto Kira’s cock.

Light’s hand wrapped loosely around his nose and mouth again, the movement somehow more threatening when L couldn’t see his face, judge his expression and reactions, but he was too far gone to care, moving erratically and trying to find an angle and a rhythm that would bring him pleasure. It seemed Light wasn’t having the same difficulty, if the noises he made were anything to go by.

And then Light’s grip tightened over his airway, and L was struck by panic and desire in equal parts; gripping at the knees of Light’s trousers to stop himself pulling Light’s hand away so that he could get another gasping breath. Light took control of his movements as well, his free hand grasping L’s hip and guiding him so that every movement sent a rush of pleasure through him as he became increasingly tense, shaking with the effort of resisting an attempt to escape Kira’s grasp.

Just as that desire became overwhelming Light let go, letting him get his breath in pants and gasps. L couldn’t stop shaking, his cock throbbing and desperate to be touched.

“Please, Kira,” he managed once he had his breath. “Again?”

“Good,” Light praised him. “You give power over your life to your God?”

“Yes,” L gasped. Anything to get that last thing to tip him over the edge of this cliff of mounting pleasure.

Light lifted L in his lap, flipping them quickly so that L was face down over the chair with his knees on the ground, Light taking control and thrusting hard and fast, covering L’s mouth and nose again and using his other hand to fist the detective’s cock. L hardly had the time to realise what a mess he was about to make of the chair’s upholstery before all thought left him as pleasure surged and crested.

Light was still hard and thrusting inside him when L caught his breath again, both hands now catching the detective’s hips and holding them still. L’s thoughts strayed, wondering why Light hadn’t also climaxed, why he fell apart so easily beneath Kira’s control whilst Light remained so under-stimulated by the experience. Of course, if Light was continuing to use sex as a way to manipulate him he would not be as enthusiastic about it as L; he would find it more difficult to find pleasure if he were not getting something he wanted out of it.

“Please, Kira, my God,” L tried to make his tone sultry, though he wasn’t really very sure what he was aiming for and so missing his target. “Allow me to see you, to touch you… to worship you.”

Where he had expected some sort of noise of pleasure or appreciation, Light gripped more tightly at his hips, bruising, and remained silent.

L re-evaluated.

“Light?”

The younger man’s rhythm broke for a second, his hands releasing L’s hips and after a moment’s hesitation grasping bony shoulders instead.

L wasn’t sure what he could say or do to help; evidently, Light was in a very odd mood that day, and was seeking some sort of reassurance that L was interested in some part of him other than Kira. It was strange, out of place, and most likely some form of manipulation, but then L had never hesitated to lie before; why then did these words, these lies stick in his throat with a sour taste? Only one phrase seemed both adequate and fitting.

“I’m yours,” L promised, wishing he could see whatever gloating smirk spread across Light’s face and kiss it away. Light’s movements stuttered and faltered. “I’m yours, Light, forever.”

“Liar,” Light hissed as he came.

“Where was the loophole?” L asked Light eventually when they were curled up together in the chair, thoughts straying back to the brutal execution Light had described on the torn notebook page.

“Don’t spoil it,” Light complained, pulling L tighter into his chest.

 

* * *

 

“There has to be a case here,” Mello told them when he arrived back at the house with Watari and Ryuk. They were short one chair from the living room, L’s solution to the mess that they had made being to set the chair on fire in the garden behind the house whilst Light showered. Light had scolded him on it, reminding him of the existence and purpose of cleaning products. “I can’t stay holed up in this place any longer.”

“You’ve hardly been holed up,” Light pointed out, taking the case files over to L and handing half over, taking half himself to look through. Mello scowled at that.

“Lover’s spat?” he queried, noticing the strained atmosphere.

“In a way,” L confirmed, just as Light told Mello to ‘fuck off’.

“Ooh, do tell,” Mello grinned, swinging his legs round so that he could sit on the very edge of his seat. Ryuk, who had been retrieving apples and chocolate, flapped back from the kitchen for the expected show.

“There’s nothing to tell,” L shrugged.

“L decided to burn the chair,” Light lied about the reason for his anger, “after it had just become my favourite.”

L flushed. “Does Light-Kira need to give that sort of detail to _Mello_?”

“Does L have to say it’s okay for _Ryuk_ to watch?” Light huffed back. Mello spluttered and burst out laughing, soon clutching at his ribs as he couldn’t stop picturing Ryuk’s horror if ever he actually took up that request; basic human gestures of affection disturbed the Shinigami, so seeing _that?_ No, he would definitely not be interested, though it did explain why Ryuk now wanted to convince the men that he could see through walls. He would achieve all of the mischief of if he really took them up on L’s offer, and yet not actually have to subject himself to see it happen.

“Hey, children?” Mello waved his hands in the air as L and Light continued to glare at one another for several minutes without blinking. He got the distinct impression that the first one to blink would receive a foot (or a fist, but L had always been very good at staring contests) to the face. He sighed as his waving made no difference and went to stand between them. “World’s greatest detective and world’s most prolific serial killer?”

“Move,” Light warned, still glaring where he would be meeting L’s eyes if Mello hadn’t stood between. Mello scowled at them both, looked to Ryuk for aid, but eventually shrugged.

“Suit yourselves,” he moved out of the way, accepting a bar of chocolate from Ryuk and settling down to watch.

“I thought we might actually be getting somewhere,” Light began angrily.

“So did I,” L snapped back. “You were finally being honest, for once in your life.”

“I’m being honest now.”

“You’re trying to manipulate me,” L accused. “Worse, I’m not even sure what you’re trying to get out of it. Do you think if I fall in love with you I’ll just let you go back to killing every person who ever did something stupid?”

“Something stupid, L? You’d be first on the list,” Light sniffed.

“I know.”

“Eugh! I don’t mean that and you know it.”

“Do I?”

“L Lawliet. I could write your name, right now,” Light reminded him. “ _I don’t want you dead._ ”

“Then what do you want?” L invaded his personal space, swiftly moving to perch almost in his lap but with both feet on one side of him, not straddling. His face was inches from Light’s.

“You,” Light reminded adamantly. “And not just because you’ve got a fucking Kira kink like all those idiots online.”

“But why?” L demanded. “What do you want from me?”

“What do _you_ want from _me_?”

“Honesty.”

Light’s fist struck L’s face with a crunch, the detective tipping backward and bringing his feet up to catch Light’s quickly turned cheek as his shoulders hit the floor. He rolled away, under the coffee table and out the other side, quickly securing a crouch and watching Light spit blood into an empty coffee cup from the table.

“You need to make up your fucking mind L,” Light growled, wiping the bloodied corner of his mouth on a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. “You want me to like you, to stop being Kira and just be a detective and your partner, fine. I’m trying my best. But you can’t have it both ways. Being Kira, it’s not something I can just switch on for… play.”

Ryuk’s obnoxiously loud laughter disrupted the tense atmosphere, breaking L from his crouch and prompting Light to get up from the chair.

“I’m going to brush my teeth,” Light spoke calmly, still glaring at L. “When you’re ready to have a normal, grown up conversation about this you know where to find me.”


	6. Tension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tides begin to change

“You’re playing with fire, L,” Mello spoke when the detective was back to his crouch in his chair. He had taken a bunch of the case files that Light had discarded to look through but they sat unread on the coffee table in favour of devoting his time to a bar of chocolate.

“No,” L’s expression was sombre, “I’m playing with Kira.”

“Exactly. Don’t you see how dangerous that is?”

“Light-Kira has my name,” L shrugged. “If he chooses to end my life it will happen whether I am sleeping with him or not. Why should I not enjoy this whilst I can?”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Mello rolled his eyes. “What you do with your own life and death is your business, you can take whatever risks you want with that. But Light’s right, Kira’s not some alternative personality in him that he can turn on and off at will, it’s just him. He’s really tried hard to stop being like that, to change for you, and now, well, you’re encouraging him.”

“No one can ever truly change,” L suggested. “I’m giving him an outlet.”

“That’s not how this works,” Mello frowned. “You must see it? Light’s been on edge for the last few days…”

“The DD case is over,” L pointed out. “This happened last time, when he wasn’t suitably distracted. He became… temperamental.”

“You’re using that as an excuse. It’s different this time,” Mello sighed. “L, have you checked the notebook recently?”

“I have, as a matter of fact,” L grinned to himself, considering the outcome of the last time he checked the notebook pages, even if he had rather spoiled Light’s game. “It is truly not what you think.”

“Isn’t it?” Mello considered. “What is it then?”

“Ryuk,” L involved the Shinigami for the explanation, considering that it might make his explanation more convincing. “If part of an instruction written in the Death Note is impossible, what happens?”

“Well, the human would still die,” Ryuk advised. “But they would just die of a heart attack in forty seconds.”

“So you’re saying the death Light wrote was impossible?” Mello looked dubious.

“We can check it if you like,” L suggested. “In fact there’s another one I wanted to…”

L trailed off, having already revealed too much. When he wasn’t on a case, he wasn’t used to hiding information from the very few people he allowed close and that circle had now expanded from just Watari to include Mello, Light and Ryuk. Mello, having heard enough, just nodded sagely.

“He’s using loose pages?”

“Just one…”

“That you know of,” Mello glanced around the room suspiciously. “He’d be more than capable of hiding them, don’t you think?”

“Of course, but whatever his play is just now, there would surely be very little benefit to killing more people behind my back. It is entirely possible that he is attempting to use operant conditioning to make me more accepting of his use of the Death Note,” L shifted uneasily in his crouch, toes fidgeting. “However, breaking the pattern of reward at this stage would be pointless, and he has enough self-control that he would be able to resist the pull of the Notebook if he wanted to.”

“I hope you’re right,” Mello agreed. “Truly I do, but even if you are what is this leading to?”

“I’m not sure I wish to consider that,” L scowled.

“Did you consider it, when Beyond started to behave strangely at Wammy’s?”

“Would it have made any difference?”

“Can you say for sure that it wouldn’t?” Mello shook his head, exasperated. “There has to be something you can do, L.”

“You’re the one who suggested I either had to choose to trust him or give up on him.”

“I said you had to trust him or give up on a _relationship_ with him, that’s not exactly the same thing,” Mello argued.

“Do you trust him?” L asked out of turn, surprising Mello. “You’re more impartial than I am.”

“I _want_ to trust him,” Mello allowed. “I want to think Light has the best interests of the world at heart and that he’s understanding that his world view isn’t the only one that’s valid, but I’m not confident in that trust.”

“So, we check the deaths,” L agreed. “These were criminals, ones that needed to die before they could kill anyone else. We know that they will be dead. If they are dead of heart attacks we accept that and check again for others if we have further concerns. If not, we go from there.”

“Alright,” Mello agreed. “At least that’s something.”

L moved to the computer array and activated the screens, quickly searching his databases that collated information from multiple police servers and finding the first victim’s name, the one that had been written into the Notebook itself.

“Heart attack,” L reassured Mello. “He wasn’t lying.”

“Try the other one,” Mello suggested cautiously. “The one from the loose page?”

L began the search, waiting for a very long time before a result came back. He was immediately alert to the sheer size of the file; with these many documents, this didn’t look like a typical police file on a Kira victim. He clicked on the first of the pictures in the folder, grasping the computer mouse with white knuckles.

Light’s description on the Notebook paper had been clear as day but seeing with his own eyes was quite different. L didn’t have a problem with dead bodies. He wasn’t squeamish and he didn’t believe there was anything of the person left when the body was dead, so the corpse held had no spiritual connections for him as they did others. A dead body created in this way by Light, however, and dishonestly so, reminded him of Beyond’s victims and the betrayed feelings it brought up in him were unwelcome and unpleasant.

He checked the details with a clinical eye, ensuring that everything matched up with the description on the Notebook page and finding no discrepancies.

“Is this what he wrote?” Mello confirmed. L hesitated to nod.

“There was a loophole, I’m 58% sure of it,” L argued. “I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt…”

“L,” Mello spun his computer chair and grasped him by the shoulders. “Is this what Light described?”

“Yes,” L admitted.

“Then, we need to confront him,” Mello instructed. L had to accept that he was being very fair, not to suggest immediate action but to give Light a chance. “We need to see what explanation he has for himself at the very least.”

“That could go badly wrong,” L acknowledged, considering. “I need some time to think about this, Mello, can you give me that?”

“No,” Mello crossed his arms over his chest. He glanced to his Shinigami friend. “Ryuk, is there any way to know for sure if this man was killed by the Death Note?”

“If his name is written in the Notebook, he would die,” Ryuk hedged. “Unless it was written after his time was already up. I cannot tell now that he’s dead, but if it matches what was written in the Notebook then it seems unlikely to be something different.”

“L, if there’s even a chance we can’t let this carry on,” Mello advised the detective. L, feeling somewhat cornered, nodded slowly.

“I will speak to Light-Kira when he wakes…”

“L, that’s not going to be enough,” Mello scowled. “You’re not seeing this rationally, you’re compromised. If there’s a chance Light killed this man, and you just talk to him about it, what are you going to do if he admits it and continues killing?”

“I cannot answer that question,” L admitted. “That is why I would like some time to think.”

L was torn. On the one hand what he was seeing on the screen was unnecessary torture, brutal and distressing for the victim and not an embodiment of justice and judgement like Kira’s more recent killings. Light had not tried to hide the killing, but had tried to trick him about the method, which made him uncomfortable. He did not trust Light-Kira, and yet even having seen the truth before his eyes he was still finding it difficult to consider taking any drastic action about this.

L had given Kira a set of rules to follow and Light had been following them as best he could. Technically he followed them now. L had not specified that the executions of criminals had to be only heart attacks. Indeed, he himself had suggested at one point that if Light was going to kill more regularly than once weekly he would have to find different ways of killing. And, it was only one victim killed this way. It could be a mistake, it could be that Light thought there was a loophole in this killing that would prevent it from happening and for some reason that impossible thing had become possible.

It could be any number of excuses, but L was sure he was only justifying this because he was not able to detach himself from the situation, from his inconvenient emotional response to the thought of possibly trying to stop Light-Kira.

“Mello,” L sighed. “We will get to the bottom of this, I promise you that. But for now, can I ask at least for your discretion? Keep this between the three of us, don’t tell Watari…”

“Or Near?” Mello frowned. “This is exactly what we agreed, isn’t it? If Kira breaks the rules, and you can’t deal with it, Near steps in.”

“We don’t have a full picture…”

“Near can get that,” Mello reminded. “I’m sorry, L, but this is out of your hands now. I’ve already told Near what I suspect…”

L’s foot struck towards Mello’s head, but Mello was quick on his feet and was out of the way before it could collide. Ryuk inserted himself into the space between them, drawn up to his full height with claws and razor teeth bared at L. Behind the Shinigami Mello had a gun in both hands trained on L.

“I’m not going to be your punching bag,” Mello warned, clicking the safety catch off both guns and firing them through Ryuk’s incorporeal body, one bullet on either side of L’s head. The warning shots left two holes through the back of the chair and into the wall behind. “You set the rules, L, if Light hasn’t overstepped them there is nothing to worry about, and if he has then he needs to be dealt with. End of story.”

L considered Mello silently as well as he could with Ryuk in the way. It was true that no such rule had been set, so perhaps there would be no problem at all for Light-Kira. Perhaps he was worrying over nothing, and all that would come of this was an unpleasant conversation to ask Light-Kira to stop doing things this way.

There was still the dishonesty to deal with, but what did he expect from Light-Kira?

Of course, Near might not actually follow through with the rules that L had set, might form his own opinion on what was acceptable and then all the plans he had made, the goal he was working towards would be spoiled. His perfect world, L as Justice and Light-Kira as Judge, would be out of the window before it had even had the chance to begin.

Before L could find an answer for Mello, there was movement across the room.

“What the hell?” Light was dressed in his pyjamas, staring disbelieving as he took in the sight of the confrontation. As usual when startled he had the Death Note in his hand, although it wasn’t open and it didn’t look like he had a pen to use it. Perhaps he was becoming more used to living with Mello’s usual drama.

“Light-Kira,” L spoke before Mello could, “come take a look at this.”

Light, still directing questioning glances at the looming Shinigami and the well-armed Mello, but seemingly not concerned by them, moved across to take a look at the computer screen.

“That’s…” Light scowled as L closely studied his reaction, which quickly became a mask. With distain, Light looked to L. “That’s the same criminal from our game earlier.”

“Yes,” L nodded, waiting for more. Light scowled at him.

“Is this another game?” Light sounded frustrated, but not guilty at all, and L tried to see what the honest reaction was behind the mask Light had raised. “Some sort of gesture, a way to tell me your decision without actually having to say it? Is that why Mello’s mad, because you’ve chosen you’d rather just have me be myself, be Kira?”

L tried not to consider the implications behind L referring to Kira as himself and focused instead on the suggestion that this was a game. “I was hoping you could enlighten me on why this man died this way, rather than of a heart attack?”

“ _If_ he’s really dead,” Light grumbled, “it wasn’t my doing. It wasn’t even paper from the Death Note; the page was fake.”

L blinked; he hadn’t predicted that, though it was always a possibility. Still, with the evidence that the criminal was dead as described, it was difficult to trust Light’s word.

“You don’t trust me, do you?” Light laughed, sneering at L. “You know what, I don’t have to keep explaining myself to you. This is just another part of the problem, L. So you think I killed him like this? You think I’m still lying to you? Well, why don’t you prove it?”

“I will,” L nodded, focusing on the computer screens and beginning to open police files as Light went through to the bedroom, closing the door a little louder than necessary on the way.

“He took the Death Note with him,” Mello pointed out as L began to engross himself in the police file. “He could just start killing people now to spite you, even if this wasn’t him.”

“Certainly,” L agreed. He half expected it; it would be a good gauge of Light-Kira’s current intentions. It was unlikely that he would resist killing now, whilst they were arguing like this. So long as he only wrote the names of criminals L found that he didn’t particularly care, finding the challenge that Light had just given him more important.

“He has your name,” Mello reminded.

“Which he could write at any moment,” L agreed. He didn’t consider that important, either.

He paused in his scrolling, reflecting.

If this was Kira, then why was he doing this? Was this another game? L had to admit he had missed the challenge of pitting his wits against Kira’s, trying to get one step ahead, one clue. Could Light have killed this one criminal in this crueller way in order to spark such a challenge for him, to make their game more real?

L considered it wishful thinking but couldn’t help but hope. He redoubled his efforts, reading through the police files at what must have been a record pace, but there was nothing in them that would prove that the death was a Kira killing as opposed to a very contrived and unlikely accident. The probability that this was Kira’s doing was in the high 90% range, but not 100%, and only 100% would do.

“L, we have to do something,” Mello reminded. L waved him away.

“If you’re so worried, wait until he’s asleep and handcuff him to the bed,” L casually suggested, since if this was a game Light surely wouldn’t mind the restraints being present when he woke up, and if it wasn’t a game they may actually be needed. “Is there any cake?”

“Cake?”

“Yes, cake,” L looked away from the computer screens to regard Mello. “I would ask Light to bring me some, but he’s currently indisposed of course, and Watari is staying elsewhere, so you’re the only one available. Cake. It raises my deductive abilities by…”

“Get your own fucking cake,” Mello interrupted, finally reaching out to tug Ryuk away from where he was still hovering near to L, looking like he was still considering whether the punishment he would receive for using his claws on a human would be worth it in exchange for striking L for trying to kick Mello. The two settled together across the sofa, Ryuk protectively holding Mello close with wings wrapped around him and claws tapping on the skin of the boy’s stomach beneath his three-quarter length top. “What happened to the loose page Light wrote on earlier?”

“Not sure.”

“You didn’t check?” Mello frowned, glancing around the room though he didn’t expect a loose page of the Death Note would just be lying around. “If we can find that we could work this out very quickly, just write a name on it and if they don’t die then Light’s telling the truth.”

That actually wasn’t a bad plan, L had to admit. He closed the computer files and together he and Mello began to search.

* * *

 

“Is it done?” Near asked as Beyond hung up the phone. The young teenager was sat on the floor surrounded by toys and a laptop computer showing scenes from the Florida villa, though at that moment the cameras that were shown on screen were focused away from the occupants of the room, picking up only on the noises that they were making. Near really wasn’t interested in seeing the detective and Kira being intimate.

“Let me show you,” Beyond snatched up the laptop, opening an array of videos that his puppets had sent him of the deaths of the Kira victims. He set the laptop back down in front of Near, grinning as on the split screen five brutal and gruesome deaths played out all at once. He was a little disappointed when Near only watched impassively, curious but not disturbed. Beyond himself watched them with delight, particularly the third one. So much blood splatter; it was a shame he couldn’t have been there in person.

“Effective,” Near agreed, waiting until the last of the videos finished before closing them all down and bringing up the villa footage again. “Why don’t I take it from here, B, and you can go and have some fun? You won’t be needed again today.”

Beyond Birthday laughed, walking over Near’s toys, delighting in the snap and crunch of plastic as Near refrained from comment, ducking his head to avoid Beyond’s fingers which trailed over the tips of his hair.

“I hope you’re saving that,” he gestured to the computer screen, where the camera Near had scrolled past in order to get to the view he had been watching before was focused on L and Light. “If you continue to think you can order me around you’re going to need one hell of an incentive for me not to just pluck out those pretty grey eyes.”

“I will,” Near’s voice was quiet, his body curling in on himself with Beyond’s proximity. Ever muscle ached, the majority of the bruising from the blows Beyond had struck over the last two days since he had left the prison covered by clothing but reminding him every second of just who he was working with and the dangers involved with his choice of associate. “It won’t be long now before you can have free reign, I promise.”

“The sooner the better,” Beyond spoke with a warning tone, his fingers dipping into Near’s hair and catching, pulling upward and lifting Near to his feet, the pale boy desperately trying not to scramble and appear flustered. “I will feel blood on my hands soon, and if you don’t hurry this up…”

“I promise, Beyond,” Near remained calm. “We just have to wait for L to…”

“Careful, snowflake,” Beyond growled. “I stopped waiting for L to do anything years ago.”

“Just a couple more days?”

“Tomorrow,” Beyond dropped him, and Near landed on his knees on the floor, forcing himself not to wince as the only thing that saved him from them breaking was the thick carpet.


	7. Theriomorphosis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theriomorphosis = transformation into a beast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You've all been so very patient, waiting for our darling Kira to snap... Light may be a very patient man, with exceptional degrees of self control, but even he has limits.

There were more pages. Many more pages, some with names and some without, hidden very carefully in difficult and obscure locations. The house was littered with them; L counted eleven more in total, and those were only the ones they found.

All five of the pages with names on them were run through the police computer systems overnight, and L had found corresponding deaths for each of them. All of the names were still from the red files, the cases that Light had investigated and was due to sentence as Kira, and it was surely too much of a coincidence now for these deaths to be happenstance.

L needed time to think about this. He didn’t sleep that night, and by the time the morning came he was crouched on the end of the bed, watching Light wake in handcuffs.

“Are you kidding?” Light grumbled without opening his eyes, tugging against the headboard. He flicked his feet towards where L crouched but couldn’t quite reach to kick him.

“I would like Light-Kira to be honest with me,” L suggested, keeping one hand behind his back. “It will be much easier and much quicker if this pattern can be broken now.”

“You couldn’t prove it because it wasn’t me,” Light told L, opening his eyes now to glare. L narrowed his eyes, depositing the pages from the hand that had been behind his back onto Light’s chest.

“And these?” L asked. “They’re in your handwriting and they have all died exactly as you described.”

“That’s a lie to try to trick me,” Light rolled his eyes as if L were being obvious. “It isn’t real Notebook paper, L.”

“Mello tested one of the pages in the pool,” L told him. “It wasn’t damaged.”

“It’s strong paper,” Light suggested, though he looked a little surprised. Would he really not have realised there was a simple test of whether the Note paper was real? “I can prove it’s not real, L.”

“You would write a name to show that it doesn’t work?” L asked, turning one of the pages over and revealing three additional names without times of death or method described. “It takes a while for the deaths to be registered on the prison systems, but we tested overnight. They are all dead.”

“You killed them?”

“Mello did,” L shrugged. “We needed to test the paper.”

“You have morality like a yo-yo,” Light griped, glaring at L.

“They were all murderers coming up for parole, who were likely to re-offend on release,” L shrugged. “And Mello doesn’t have to keep the Notebook, so he can’t get addicted.”

“L,” Light managed to manoeuvre himself in the handcuffs so that he could sit upright, the pages falling across the bed. He looked concerned, perhaps because he had been caught but L couldn’t help thinking that the Light-Kira he knew would have responded to the evidence pointing his way by flaunting his ability to kill under L’s nose and challenging him to stop him. “I’m telling you this really isn’t real Notebook paper, which means somehow someone knows what I’ve – we’ve been writing and has been making sure it happens.”

“The probability of that is low,” L argued.

“What if it’s an actual Shinigami?” Light thought aloud. “We know they can’t be seen without having touched their Death Note, and we know they have the means and ability to kill like this.”

“Would Ryuk not be able to see them?” L pointed out.

“Yes, if they were present when Ryuk was,” Light acknowledged. “But if they waited until Ryuk was out of the room they could be in there with us and we wouldn’t know it.”

“The probability is still low.”

“Or we could be being watched in a more conventional way,” Light glanced at the ceiling, considering the join between its edge and the wall.

“Who would do that?”

“You’re the detective,” Light huffed. “Go investigate.”

L fell silent, regarding Light. After a few quiet moments he abruptly moved forward, face inches from Light’s as he assessed his eyes closely.

“It’s strange,” L finally drew back. “Those really do look like your honestly honest eyes.”

“Then let me out,” Light tugged on the handcuffs, rattling them against the headboard.

“I can’t do that,” L denied. “But I will continue to investigate. I’ll make sure you get food.”

“Bathroom?” Light demanded before L could leave. L sighed.

“Watari will see to your needs whilst I investigate,” he assured, leaving to do just that.

* * *

 

A few hours passed with L in front of the computers, investigating. Mello was doing practical testing, using one of the torn-out pages and a freshly torn Death Note page to find discrepancies in how the papers responded to different things. The freshly torn pages did not seem to stain with coffee, but aside from that Mello was struggling to find any difference. Other than in water, the Death Note paper functioned just as normal paper would, making it hard to find something that would be conclusive.

If they hadn’t had the television on in the background, checking the news channels every so often for signs that the deaths had been announced publicly and if the media had made any unlikely connection between them and Kira, they would have missed the moment the screen was taken over by white and a calligraphic N.

“This is a worldwide announcement from the Kira taskforce. Please do not turn off your television set.”

L hopped up from his computer and took his perch in his chair, fetching his cool whip covered cheesecake with him.

“Near,” Mello sat forward in his chair, glancing at L to see his reaction. The detective kept his expression neutral, waiting to see what the boy would say through his voice filter, a mimic of L’s.

“I am Near,” the young detective began, “the successor to the detective L. Months ago it was announced that Kira had been captured; that was true. However, in recent weeks L has fallen victim to Kira. Killings have started again.”

“For those of you who have stood against Kira since the beginning, you will understand why I must ask the world to aid in the capture of this serial killer. However, there will be those among you, perhaps even sharing the same home, who have followed Kira since the beginning, who have stood in favour of the enforcement of justice by death.”

“To those of you, I would ask, is this justice you see?”

The screen changed, the white behind the N replaced by video footage, the faces and most grotesque parts blurred and pixelated, but evidently people who had died suffering. Near waited out the videos that were all familiar to L before speaking again.

“We no longer need to seek a suspect for Kira; we know exactly who he is. We need only find him.”

The background image changed; a college headshot of Light.

“This is Kira. If you see him, do not approach him. He is dangerous, and he is the most wanted man on the face of the planet. If he thinks you mean him harm, he will kill you. If he is sighted, do not run. Continue as you were, and once you are in a place of safety, please call your local police and report the sighting. Together, the world can overcome this threat once and for all.”

The screen remained for a few moments more, the number standing out against the plain background, and then returned to the news.

L and Mello were silent for a few seconds, L’s spoon paused halfway to his open mouth.

He wouldn’t, would he?

Near was always amoral, always willing to do anything to achieve a goal. He had lost their last game, he had not been successful in catching the killer or winning over Mello to join him. L trusted him with the ability to be unbiased about Kira for the simple reason that he had no sense of emotion or morality, and any friendship or connection Near felt towards Kira would be a fleeting afterthought after he had achieved whatever victory he sought. However, his lack of morality or care for others was a big part of why L had not chosen Near to be his primary successor.

That same detachment from all emotions made Near dangerous. He was willing to do literally anything for his victory.

He would be willing to undermine L by destroying Light – destroying Kira, and the connection between them would drag L down with him. He would do it without hesitation, without thought.

The calculations had raced through L’s mind faster than the broadcast occurred, and he was certain. Somehow these killings were attributable to Near.

“Fuck!” Mello shrieked, kicking over the coffee table and scattering case files over the floor. Ryuk also moved quickly, overbalancing the sofa which toppled backwards as he caught hold of Mello to stop him doing himself any serious damage.

“It’s Near,” L breathed, glancing at Mello. Still, there was a sticking point, something that he couldn’t rationalise…

“Ryuk, get all the cameras out of here right now!” Mello demanded of his Shinigami friend, who rushed to comply.

“How is he killing them?” L wondered aloud, watching as Ryuk tossed camera after camera into the water of the swimming pool. He wondered if he should feel betrayed, that Mello knew about them but hid them from him. He recalled his own arrangement with Mello and Near if he should become compromised; this was a trap of his own making. There was no point taking out that frustration on Mello.

“Does it matter? It has to be him, which means it’s not Light,” Mello was shaking with the effort of not just destroying the room.

“I’ll go let him out,” L agreed, his thoughts racing, the possibilities of what would happen now and what they needed to do to avoid disaster all converging on one thought, “Go pack. We need to move. Too many people know our last location was Florida.”

L hurried through to the bedroom, where he found Light on the bed still chained but with only one handcuff. The loose pages were scattered around him, and he held one of them up for L to see; he had covered every inch of it with his own name, written in his own blood from a small wound he had bitten into his finger tip.

“Is this proof enough for you?” Light demanded. L stopped in his tracks. In the hours he had left Light alone, the younger man had clearly become increasingly angry and had lost the last of his patience.

“I’m sorry,” he began, staring at the page. He truly hated to admit that he had been wrong about anything, not least about something as important as this, and folded in on himself so that he looked nearly a foot shorter than his full height. “I believe you.”

“Too little too late,” Light snarled, and his eyes tinted with the blood red of Kira. “Release me from this cuff.”

“Light-Kira…”

“Release me,” L shuddered at Kira’s commanding tone, telling himself that now was not the time for him to go suddenly weak at the knees even though the command affected him strongly.

“Light-Kira, it’s Near,” he tried to explain and to remind himself why he could not succumb to his own temptations at that exact moment. L was not good at self-control, as his diet of sugar and cake could be used to demonstrate.

“I don’t care,” Kira told him, “Release the cuff.”

L nodded, swallowing despite a suddenly dry throat, and hesitantly did so. As soon as he was free of the metal, Light shoved L down onto his back on the bed, holding him firmly by the throat but not constricting.

“You wanted Kira so much you couldn’t even trust me,” he snarled, “well, be careful what you wish for.”

“Light-Kira…”

Kira’s fingers tightened around L’s throat, stopping him speaking.

“Prove your faith in Kira,” the man commanded, releasing L’s neck and dragging him to sit up, holding out the loose pages and the pen. “Write your own name, L Lawliet.”

“Light-Kira, we don’t have time…”

Kira slapped him and L didn’t try to move away from the blow, biting his lip to silence the yelp that wanted to escape. He picked up one of the pages from the bed, the shaking of his hands made obvious by the loose page, which rustled as it trembled. L told himself that it was fear that made him shake even as he shifted to hide his growing erection where it had begun to tent his jeans.

“Your name,” Kira told him again. L took the pen, resigned but obedient, and began to write and speak at the same time.

“Light-Kira…”

“Just Kira,” he snapped, shoving the other pages into L’s lap. His clenched fist unintentionally brushed the head of L’s erection without any gentleness, and L had to bite on his thumb to stop himself making any unwelcome noises. “That’s all you see, isn’t it L?”

“Kira, then,” L agreed, pressured. They didn’t have time to waste on writing names or for L to indulge his own fantasies. “These killings are Near’s doing. I’m not sure how he is killing them yet, but he has had the house bugged and watched. He has just been on television for a worldwide broadcast to rally the public against Kira. We have to get out of here, we need to regroup somewhere else. This is our last known location; it isn’t safe.”

“Or I could just kill him,” Light suggested. “That would solve a lot of problems, actually.”

“I would very much appreciate it if you don’t,” L didn’t dare refuse outright, couldn’t give commands to Kira. Light hesitated, then snorted.

“I don’t kill kids,” he allowed. “But if Near keeps making trouble that might change.”

“Thank you,” L breathed a sigh of relief. He held up the first of the pages between the tips of his fingers, covered front and back with his own name for Kira’s inspection. “Please, Kira, we must move…”

“Keep going,” he demanded anyway. “Where have you put the Death Note?”

“Safe,” L flinched a little; he really didn’t want to give Light the Notebook when he was like this. Desire for Kira was one thing, trusting him was an entirely different matter.

“Wrong answer,” Kira warned.

“… with Watari,” L told him honestly, writing as quickly as he could. “He won’t give it to you.”

“That will have to change.”

“When you are calm,” L agreed, half expecting another blow but Kira restrained himself. He focused his attention on finishing writing his name on all the pages, writing in very large letters to make things quicker. He held up the remaining covered sheets to Kira, who took them and after checking them lit them on fire with one of Mello’s lighters.

“On your knees,” Kira commanded. L rushed to comply, desperate to satisfy him so that they could get out of there. “Kiss my feet.”

L forced himself not to hesitate, though bile rose in his throat as he saw Light’s feet were covered with socks. The material made the feet sweat a little, enough to have a very slight odour, and the slightly scratchy material of the sock itched the end of L’s nose, but he kissed anyway.

“This is where you belong,” Kira told him, lifting one foot and resting it on L’s back, forcing him to continue to kiss the socked foot that remained on the ground.

“Yes, Kira,” L couldn’t resist breathing into the scratchy material. He couldn’t rationalise the conflicting disgust and desire that chased away his thoughts, so he held only the one thought back, the most important. “At my God’s feet, and I have sinned, and I do not deserve this opportunity to worship you, but please, please Kira, we must go.”

“I’d kill you now,” Kira growled, “I should kill you now.”

“Yes,” L agreed before he could catch himself, a gasped word that he instantly regretted; this wasn’t a game anymore, and Kira wasn’t playing.

Kira was thoughtful. He was considering it, truly considering ending L’s life, and the detective held his breath as he waited for Judgement.

“Kira will give you one more chance, L Lawliet. Your God is merciful.”

“Thank you,” L rested his forehead on the ridge of Kira’s foot, breathing a sigh of relief.

“On your feet,” Kira commanded, and L scrambled up. “I will pack. Go get Watari to make the arrangements for where we’re going, then come back and help.”

“Yes, Kira,” L obeyed immediately, sparing half a thought to wonder just how in the world Near thought he was capable of challenging a God.


	8. Refuge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now Kira is awake, and the team seek shelter to re-group with some old friends whilst they consider their next move.

If Light-Kira hadn’t been so proud, L thought, Watari would have had a far easier job of arranging a flight for them to anywhere in the world. Light-Kira outright refused to go in disguise, so with his picture made public by Near it was a good thing that the fierce and dangerous looking man was a far cry from how he had looked in his high school leaving photographs. The Light-Kira who boarded the private plane Watari had very quickly arranged at great cost was also not shy about informing L that if one of the flight attendants appeared to suspect anything he would not hesitate to kill them, whether L gave him the Death Note or not.

Light-Kira had almost always remained in control of himself around Mello, brief moments aside before the DD murder case, and the teenager’s reaction to the Light-Kira that was loosed when he dropped all masks and allowed his anger to show through was not what L expected. Mello had been so adamant about not letting Kira kill again that L had thought it likely that this Light-Kira would have Mello either drawing his guns or leaving them.

Light-Kira had left the bedroom, tossed a packed bag at L’s feet for him to carry, and rounded on Mello.

“You’ve been stupid,” Kira was deadly calm as he addressed the boy, but his eyes blazed red. “You have been informing Near, wrongly, of your ridiculously narrow-minded conclusions.”

Mello had never been one to take criticism well, but beneath Kira’s withering glare his temper could not explode.

“I was doing what I thought was right,” Mello had told him simply. “We’ve all done that, once in a while, have we not?”

Light-Kira had looked to L then, sneering, and L understood when Light-Kira agreed with Mello. Light-Kira was lamenting time lost trying to play nicely with L’s rules, since in the long run they had done him little benefit; Near was trying to rally the world against Kira anyway.

“You are either with me,” Kira had told Mello, “or against me. Which is it to be?”

“I stand with L,” Mello had answered him, looking to the detective to guidance. L wished Mello had answered differently, definitively for or against. At least then he wouldn’t have to be worried that he was dragging Mello into whatever choice he made.

“At my feet, then,” Kira had laughed, sending a chill down L’s spine. It wasn’t a mad laugh, like Beyond’s, but it was just as dangerous. However, Kira was willing to be a generous God to those he liked, and he had always had a soft spot for Mello. “Last chance to change your mind and leave with your life.”

Mello looked to L, worry clouding his usual confidence, but L did not offer him any answers. He didn’t know himself what he was going to do about this situation, hadn’t had time to consider the potential outcomes of every possibility, hadn’t worked out the path of least resistance yet. He had nothing to offer Mello, but Mello took L’s downcast eyes as an answer, as submission to Kira. Perhaps in the end it was.

“I’m with you,” Mello promised. He looked to his Shinigami friend. “Ryuk?”

“Looks interesting,” the Shinigami had realised that they could potentially be on the move for a while and had been eating as many apples as he could in the meantime, preparing to stave off withdrawal symptoms. To Ryuk, if something was interesting it was good enough and he would follow to see how much amusement he could get out of it, so Mello took that as answer enough.

“Once we’ve got what we need out of here, could I blow the place?” Mello asked Light-Kira. With his decision made, his eyes lit with excitement as he looked around the building.

“Trap it,” Light-Kira had suggested to him instead. “Do your worst. Anyone who comes here searching for us after we’ve gone should die.”

Mello wasn’t sure how he felt about killing people who were just looking for them. He had been taught, repeatedly, that murder was wrong. However, he had also been taught to defend himself, and to achieve his goals by any cost. If protecting Light was going to be one of his goals now, he could easily reason his way to set his traps to be lethal.

Plus, he hadn’t ever had the chance to see if he could rig a flamethrower to a trip wire…

Watari had been quiet from the moment he had booked the flights until they were on board, watching Light-Kira with very little emotion expressed, but L could see his concern, and he had tried to reassure his elderly handler during the flight that Light-Kira was not the murderer from the video that had been shown in Near’s broadcast. Unfortunately for L Watari was less concerned by that than Light-Kira’s current manner, which L could not explain away or deny.

The plan landed just as darkness was falling on the cold October evening, and Watari rapidly loaded their bags from their private plane to a waiting car where they were able to leave the airport without passing through the main terminals.

“We’re calling in a favour,” Watari had told them before they boarded the flight, not telling them exactly where they were going but the destination obvious now that they had landed.

The car was inconspicuous enough that L was sure they wouldn’t be noticed as they travelled through the city and out into the Scottish countryside, the headlights soon providing the only break in the darkness for miles around.

“They have to trust you,” L reminded Light-Kira as they pulled in. The entire ten hours of travel had been tense and quiet, no one speaking though Light-Kira had been comfortable enough to watch the in-flight entertainment all the way on the plane. “If we’re going to convince them to let us stay they can’t think that they’re in danger from you.”

“The only way they will be in danger is if they don’t let us stay,” Light-Kira had promised. “But, I suppose, I can play nice.”

“Thank you,” L breathed, wondering how long it would last. He had never seen Light allow the mask to slip for so long before.

Somehow Mello convinced Ryuk to help Watari with the bags as the three of them made their way to the large, surprisingly modern building located in a picturesque valley between two hills that would almost be considered mountains. Even as early as October those hills were capped with snow, adding to the scenery as the moonlight caught off the peaks.

The door of the house opened before they got close and Light-Kira was suddenly engulfed in the arms of a feisty redhead.

“I knew it wasn’t you!” Kit told him by way of greeting, clutching him tightly. Light stood rigidly, not embracing her back. “You’re not what that N thinks you are.”

L tried not to worry as he saw Light-Kira’s careful mask slipping into a sneer as Kit continued to hug him tightly.

“Kit,” Mello intervened before it could go too far. “Light’s had a very long day…”

“Oh,” Kit let go and Light’s mask returned as quickly as it had fallen. He looked apologetic rather than scornful, offering a hand to shake hers instead.

“Thank you for your faith in me,” Light’s tone dripped with honey, pure manipulation. “If only everyone trusted me so much.”

Kit rounded on L as Light-Kira looked to him pointedly.

“You’re an arsehole, L,” Kit prodded him in the chest as L suddenly found the dirt between his toes to be the most interesting point of focus. “Light’s been so good to you, and you still think he’d do something like this?”

“Yes,” L shrugged, fixing Light-Kira with a glare. Of course, he didn’t believe that Light-Kira had actually performed these killings. Not anymore. But was he capable of them?

Definitely.

“No cake for you,” Kit threatened, turning to Mello but before she could speak to the boy a blonde bundle rushed from the house and bounded into her arms. From how Kit instinctively caught the fox this was a common occurrence.

“Hey, look at that,” Mello grinned broadly at the royal blue collar around the fox’s neck. “Told you he’d like it.”

Kit’s face flushed to match her hair.

“It’s for when we’re in public,” Kit argued as the fox rubbed the back of its head against her shoulder, the gesture serving to scratch an itch and show off the collar more. “It’s hard enough to pretend a fox is actually just a weird looking dog without it having no collar.”

“Sure it is,” Mello laughed. “Did you get a leash too?”

The fox wriggled its way out of Kit’s hold and landed lightly on the floor, the kitsune ability to fly used to make its landing graceful. He ran inside, emerging with a royal blue leash in his teeth. Mello winked at Kit, who dropped her head into her hands.

“He’s a fox!” she protested. “There’s absolutely nothing sexual about this.”

“Can’t help but notice that collar’s on a really tight hole,” Mello raised an eyebrow. “Koinu, can I check something?”

The fox trotted to Mello’s feet, letting him remove the collar and wrap it around his own neck. Even around Mello’s throat the collar would have been on the third hole with room to spare.

“So, you’re really going to tell me this was bought without bearing in mind that he might be human soon?” Mello accused, restoring the collar to around Koinu’s neck at his incessant scratching of Mello’s knee.

“How long did you say you were going to be staying again?” Kit joked, rolling her eyes as Koinu jumped back into her arms.

“I’m sorry we had to bother you with this,” Light sounded genuinely apologetic, for which L was grateful. They needed Kit, needed this remote location. He needed time to think and work out where to go from here. “This was the only place we could think of that was isolated enough for us to hide out a while.”

“It’s absolutely no trouble,” Kit insisted. “Although I’m afraid I only have one guest room. At least one of you will have to sleep on a camp bed…”

“Do you have a tent?” Mello looked around the large garden curiously including a bonfire pit. “I’ve never slept outside before.”

L was sure that Mello had indeed slept outside during several cases when he had been infiltrating different organisations, particularly when trying to ambush a killer who had thought to purge the streets of the homeless in London, but Mello had never been camping.

“It’s a bit cold in Scotland to be camping in October,” Kit worried.

“Please?” Mello put on his biggest eyes, his most childish look. “I thought I was your favourite?”

“You promise you’ll come inside if it gets too cold?”

“Cross my heart and let Ryuk write my name,” he swore, ignoring the way the Shinigami shifted uncomfortably at the latter suggestion.

“Alright,” Kit agreed. “You must all be exhausted! I’m sorry, you should all come in, you’ll need to eat of course, and you’ll probably need a drink after a day like this…”

Kit casually dropped Koinu to the floor so that her hands would be free to prepare food and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening fussing over the team like a mother hen until Mello, full of chocolate cake, took his leave to put up the tent with Ryuk.

“What are you going to do?” Kit asked Light as they sat together in front of the log fire with hot chocolates apiece.

“Lie low for a while,” Light shrugged. “L doesn’t trust me enough to let me have the Notebook, and he’s probably right. My solution would be to get rid of the problem.”

“Near?”

“Yes,” Light nodded. “This whole thing, the broadcast, the killings, they can all be traced back to him. But I think L feels responsible for him, even now, and he won’t let me do that.”

“Could you really kill him?” Kit’s tone made clear that she thought it was callous to suggest. “He worked with you, and he’s just a kid.”

Light sighed heavily, stirring his hot chocolate and watching the marshmallows on top melt. It was far too sweet for him, but Kit had gone to the trouble to make it for him and she had played host to them at the last moment so he would drink it. “Near isn’t just a kid, he’s a monster in the making. All these killings, how brutal they are, he’s showing that he’s exactly the sort of person that Kira should be killing.”

“You still believe that, then?” Kit frowned at him, but there was no judgement in her tone. “That Kira should kill people who are evil?”

“Very few people are just good or just evil,” Light corrected. “But those who are closest to evil, yes, I think the world would be better off and safer without them.”

“What does that make Kira?”

“L calls it Judgement,” Light glanced up at her, assessing her reaction. “You’re familiar with it, I suppose. You saw what happened to your ex.”

Kit did recall the brutal death that Rem the Shinigami had dealt to her abusive ex-partner. However, she had been so relieved at the time to be safe from him that she had not considered it in the terms Light was framing.

“Light,” Kit frowned a little at him. “What happens if, once you start, you can’t stop? Where does Judgement stop and become evil?”

“That’s why I have L,” Light glanced at where the detective was crouched, flicking through news reports on Kit’s computer. “To remind me when to stop.”

“He’s moved the goal posts,” Kit acknowledged. Light nodded.

“He understands more, now,” he explained. “Or he’s more willing to accept that his own ideas of justice tie in with mine.”

“That could be dangerous. L and Light, working together. If you set your minds on it, together I have no doubt you could take over the world.”

Light laughed casually, but there was a gleam of red in his eyes that L saw before Light-Kira could suppress it. “We’ll see.”

His tone was joking, but even as Kit laughed Koinu shifted uneasily in her lap, watching Light with large, intelligent blue eyes.

* * *

 

“Light-Kira?” L didn’t try Kit’s patience that first night by trying to remain awake on the computer through the night, instead retiring to bed when Light-Kira did.

“Close the door,” Light-Kira ordered L, taking over the bathroom and setting the shower running. L followed him though, undressing and getting into the large shower at the same time. Light had his back turned to L but tensed when L rested his hands on his shoulders. The younger man turned to him, holding out the small bottle of shower gel and the sponge. “Wash me, if you like.”

L nodded, carefully lathering every inch of Light-Kira’s skin with careful strokes of the sponge.

“On your knees,” Kira’s darker tone commanded after a while, and L glanced up into the blood red as he obeyed. “My feet.”

L set the sponge aside and began to spread the soap with his fingers, massaging the feet carefully one by one, taking particular care to wash between the toes and underneath as well. Even if he hadn’t wanted so strongly for Kira, he would have enjoyed this. Light had feet that were as lovely as the rest of him, and this felt like something special and intimate that only L had ever been permitted to do; he felt blessed.

It was a long time before he looked up, the fall of water from the shower drowning out that Light-Kira’s breathing had sped up, the slick stroke of skin on skin. He only looked up when Light-Kira let out a strangled groan.

One of Kira’s hands was bracing on the side of the shower, the other fisted around his hard cock and stroking roughly as he watched L worshipping his feet. The kneeling position left L just below eye level with Kira’s cock and he barely had time to process what he was seeing and close his eyes swiftly before Kira’s cock covered him in his come. L flicked out his tongue, tasting the slightly salty fluid before it could be washed away by the shower.

“Are you hard?” Kira asked him, though he could have easily seen for himself if he had only bothered to look.

“Yes, Kira,” L gasped, opening his eyes now that the water had washed away most of what was on his face.

“Good,” Kira chuckled darkly. “You will not come.”

“Kira?” L blinked, eyes wide.

“You will keep yourself like that,” Kira commanded. “Once you are dry from the shower – no making a mess of Kit’s lovely carpet – you will kneel at the foot of the bed where I can see you and you will keep yourself hard until I fall asleep. Once I fall asleep you may stop stimulating yourself, but you may not come and you will not sleep tonight. Am I clear?”

“Yes, Kira,” L breathed.

“Good,” Kira turned off the shower, stepping out and wrapping a towel around himself. L hesitated; he was not entirely clean from Kira’s actions before, but he dared not turn the water back on so he got out as well, drying himself off as thoroughly as he had never bothered to before.

Light-Kira took his time in drying off and combing his hair back to perfection before he joined L in the bedroom. L, who hadn’t dared to allow his erection to wane even though Kira wasn’t there to see, was already knelt at the end of the bed as instructed.

Light-Kira traced a single finger across the back of his shoulders, L straightening reflexively to seek more of the touch.

“Stay like that,” Kira commanded once L was fully upright from his slouch. L nodded to show he would obey, bracing in the unnatural feeling position as Light-Kira got into the bed and rested his head on the pillows, studying L coldly. “Would you like to know how I would kill you tonight, L Lawliet?”

L swallowed, frightened of the temptation and delighting in it.

“Yes, Kira, please,” he requested. “How?”

“I would use my belt,” Kira closed his eyes where he lounged back into the pillows, a small smile gracing his features, making him look angelic even as his words betrayed the opposite. “I would not touch you with my hands, you would like that too much. First, I would lash you for your lack of faith in your God.”

“Yes, Kira,” L breathed. He had no need to stimulate his cock to keep it hard now. “What then?”

“Then,” Kira chuckled. “I would wrap the belt around your neck and strangle your lying breath out of you.”

L gasped, even though it was not the elaborate and tempting tale he had expected from Kira, whose patience with him was so very short tonight that he was unwilling to indulge L’s fetish any further.

Long after Light-Kira fell to sleep, L continued to struggle to resist the temptation to seek his own release.


	9. Barratry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Near & Beyond face L & Kira in the shadows, the world is stirred into action.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barratry – inciting a riot or violence

“Having fun?” Near asked Beyond Birthday as he typed quickly at his computer, the background changed to deep red. The keyboard was working well despite the globs of jam stuck in the keys as Beyond scooped more straight from the jar and didn’t wipe his hand as he continued to type.

“Plenty,” Beyond giggled madly, licking spread jam from the corner of his mouth.

“How many?”

“Three thousand,” Beyond continued typing, “oh, and two.”

“Armed?”

“Lots of them.”

“I suppose you’re going to go in person?” Near’s tone was judging, his scorn for field work showing.

“There’s going to be blood and death,” Beyond bared his teeth as a mimic of a grin. “Of course I’m going.”

“Drop the crazy,” Near reminded him, returning to his own computer screens and the message boards he was working on. Three thousand… Near had only managed fifteen hundred, and he refused to be outdone by the psycho serial killer he was working with. Before he could start properly on his task he felt a sharp splitting pain in his thigh and looked down with wide eyes at the small knife handle that stuck out of it, a thin trickle of blood staining his clothing.

“I’ll do what I want,” Beyond told him, holding his hand out for the knife without looking up from his typing. Near couldn’t bring himself to pull the blade out himself, frozen by the sight of his own blood on his white pyjama bottoms, but regretted it when Beyond tore it from him, making as much damage on the way out as on the way in. “I’m here because I want to be, not because you have any right to control me, little sheep.”

When the killing really began, the high probability that Beyond would leave their headquarters to join in was what Near was counting on. Otherwise, their fates were tied together, so if Beyond died so would Near, and Beyond would have to die for Near to survive.

Near knew this, but he was understanding more by the day how uncontrollable Beyond truly was. Their goals aligned, their purpose to destroy L uniting them, but it was at Beyond’s fragile mercy that he continued to breathe and he had to tread carefully if he wished to come out of this alive.

* * *

 

“These are delicious,” Kit praised as she tucked in to the second of Light’s apple and chocolate turnovers, Koinu curled up in her lap as she ate, unable to consume the chocolate in his fox form as it would make him sick. “I don’t understand how anyone can think you’re a brutal mass murderer torturing people to death, Light, when you spend half your time making pastries for your weird boyfriend.”

“Kira, saving the world from criminals one cake at a time,” Light chuckled, preferring his cereal this morning to the pastries; he had been gaining a little weight by trying to match L’s eating habits, and he was determined to shed it quickly. He would not spoil his perfect image over cake.

“Seriously though, if anyone saw you dancing around the kitchen in that pink apron of yours, singing to Disney music with a mildly deranged teenager, this whole anti-Kira drama could be dealt with like that,” Kit snapped her fingers.

“God forbid,” Light shuddered, pointing his spoon at Kit. “That’s a vicious rumour that never, ever leaves present company, got it?”

Kit laughed at him. “What are you gonna do, kill me Kira?”

“Don’t tempt him,” L was sulking on the sofa, staying away from the breakfast bar after Light had told him he had to wait his turn rather than eating all the pastries before the others could get their share.

“Aww, L, you’re being mean again,” Kit flicked a chocolate chip at the detective’s head. “Light wouldn’t do that, it’s a harmless joke that’s all.”

“While you’re at it, don’t call Light-Kira Kira either,” L huffed. Light glared at him.

“Afraid of waking the beast, L?” his tone was playful despite his narrowed eyes and fierce features. “Kit can call me Kira if she likes.”

Koinu had stood up in Kit’s lap and was pawing at her, whining a little. Kit frowned down at the fox.

“Alright, I won’t call him Kira,” she promised. “Gosh, it’s not like you say the name three times and Light goes psycho, right?”

“Best not tempt fate,” Mello agreed with the others. “Light, this can’t be easy on you. You actually haven’t done anything wrong – for once- and the whole world’s against you…”

“Well, not the whole world,” Light grinned, “have you watched the news or looked online this morning?”

“Not yet,” Mello admitted, so L turned on the television and flicked through the news channels.

The broadcasts that day were all about Kira, all other news if there was any put on the backburner as the big breaking story became focus around the world. The journalists seemed to be trying to give a balanced perspective, speaking to pro- and ant- Kira groups just the same.

“Kira must be stopped,” A group marching down Oxford street in London were interviewed by channel five, their banners written in red paint as if in blood demanding the death of Kira and for L to hand him over to the authorities. “We will find him, the world will find him and when we do he will get the execution that he deserved from the start. We will do it ourselves since the legal system failed.”

“They seem to want your head, Light,” Mello pointed out, but Light did not look too unsettled, grinning a little.

“Change the channel, L,” he suggested, and the detective did flick through to the next station showing the news, channel four.

“Kira’s judgement is greater than the law,” the Kira supporter vehemently told the reporter there. “Even L has turned and seen that Kira is the only way. The only true path to justice is through Kira.”

“She’s clearly mad,” Mello argued. Indeed, this particular Kira supporter was perhaps not Light’s best example, dressed as she was in what looked very much like a hemp sack and with a tangled bird’s nest for hair. Since the reporters were filming at Stonehenge, Light figured that she was probably some sort of druid. Perhaps a controversial public image for his supporters, not a figure head he would have chosen, conscious as he was of appearances. L changed the channel again, to a very respectable group of men and women in business suits being interviewed by the morning news reporters.

“Kira, the true Kira, does not kill like this,” one of the pro-campaigners was reporting on channel one. “Kira stands for justice and only kills criminals, Kira kills with a heart attack, there would be no reason to change how he kills now, this is not justice this is something else. Perhaps this is a third Kira?”

“It could very well be a third Kira,” one of the others agreed. “But I’m not sure it matters whether this is the same Kira or not. All evidence found after the deaths of this latest number that have been killed suggest that they themselves were brutal serial killers who deserved more than what they got. Kira is only doing what we all wish we had the courage to do.”

“Speak for yourself,” another of them reasoned. “There are many people who would argue that Kira has lowered himself to such a level with these killings that he is no better than the serial killers he seeks to punish.”

“Then perhaps,” the second man argued, “Kira is doing what is right rather than what is easy. Kira does what is necessary to stop crime in all its forms. Perhaps he has chosen to kill this way in order to make a statement to the criminals of the world that if they don’t stop he will stop them, and it won’t just be a heart attack they have to fear.”

“This is ridiculous, killing is _always_ wrong, no matter the motive,” another of the suited group, wide eyed and horrified, tried to argue. “We shouldn’t be debating whether how Kira kills is right, we should be saying no and putting a stop to Kira once and for all.”

L turned off the television, setting down the remote and staring at the blank screen. Light could practically hear the calculations taking place in the detective’s mind.

“I’m done,” he declared, taking his empty cereal bowl to the sink. L perked up immediately, stealing his seat at the breakfast bar and shovelling a pasty into his mouth, getting chocolate and apple sauce on his shirt as it dripped out of the bottom of the warm turnover. His calculations suitably stalled, Light let L keep the chair, taking L’s computer and searching for any evidence of further killings that matched whoever this Kira mimic was.

“What’s the probability that Near is behind these killings?” Light checked with L, scrolling through another three that he had found so far, all killers from his red files list.

“Extremely close to 100%,” L spoke with his mouth full. “What I don’t know yet is how.”

“If we’re so sure Near is behind this,” Light argued. “The easiest solution that would cause the least drama for the world would still be just to kill him.”

“Light!” Kit gasped.

“We’ve had this conversation,” L reminded him.

“More people have died overnight,” Light pointed out, turning the screen so that the gruesome images were on show to the team. “I’m not saying I’m happy about the idea of killing a kid, but Near’s not normal, and it might save a lot of lives.”

“We’re not killing Near,” Mello snapped, setting one of his guns down on the table so that it was close by, a warning. “Think again.”

“Well then,” Light set the computer down. Despite himself, he did want to keep Mello and L on side and killing Near seemed like it would be a break point. “Perhaps we should make it clear to the world that Kira isn’t behind these killings.”

“I doubt that would make any difference,” L argued. “First, no one would believe such a declaration, and second, if you wanted to do a public broadcast there would be a huge degree of risk involved. We cannot allow Near to find our current location.”

“What matters isn’t Kira’s public image,” Mello pointed out. “We need to find Near and stop him without being trapped ourselves.”

“Kira’s public image does matter,” L surprised them all by stating. “If this continues for much longer the unrest will not remain behind closed doors. It might take days or weeks but if people are actually trying to find and catch Kira it is only a matter of time before public opinion turns into action. I need to think about our next move, we need to get a step ahead of Near.”

A ping from the computer alerted Light to a message, and he opened it though it was addressed to L from Watari. He read the single line, then snatched up the remote and turned on the television.

On the strap line at the bottom the words read breaking news, and as the camera panned from the studio to the live feed the sight of the Magic Kingdom fairy-tale castle filled the screen, surrounded by chaos.

L rushed to his chair, perching in his deductive crouch and biting his thumb as he watched.

“We have breaking news live from Orlando, Florida, last known location of L and Kira. Here this morning thousands of people have flooded into the parks, marching in support of Kira, whilst others have gathered to protest the killer’s latest actions. As we speak, a riot has broken out between the two factions, and the police are trying to break up the fighting. So far, we have reports of five dead, with more wounded and outside the park gates the fighting continues, with hundreds more arriving who have not yet got through the entrance of the park.”

“There are more supporters than protesters,” Light pointed out quite casually as he assessed the crowd.

“That’s not the point,” Mello snapped, watching with shock as the cameras panned quickly away from a group of youths hefting an older man over their heads and tossing him into the makeshift moat around the castle. “This shouldn’t be happening. It’s too soon.”

“Near must be stirring them up,” L agreed. “Even more than he has already…”

“The forums,” Light realised, opening the ones he knew best. He had enjoyed looking through what Kira supporters had said about him since the early days of Kira, enjoying their praise and also thinking that if the public supported what he was doing it couldn’t be as wrong as those seeking to stop him would suggest.

“Be careful to reroute the IP address if you intend to post,” L reminded Light, slightly concerned as the younger man began to type away.

“I will,” Light grinned. “L, there’s one person on here that seems to have orchestrated this whole gathering at Disney.”

“That’s likely to be Near,” L agreed. “Can you trace him?”

“Not at all,” Light checked, “he’s encrypted everything of course.”

“Be careful what you say,” L requested, “don’t make things any worse than they are already.”

“Define worse?”

“I…” L trailed off, scowling at the television screen where a group were beating a young woman, her arms wrapped tightly around her head to defend herself. Indeed, Light was right, something had to be done. “Just be careful.”

“This is horrible,” Kit clung to Koinu, who nuzzled into her comfortingly. “Is there nothing you can do to stop them?”

“Not without the Notebook and their names,” Light frowned. “L?”

“Let me think,” L got to his feet and left the room, retreating for quiet and space. Light watched him go, wondering what the detective was going to conclude now and suspecting as usual that somehow all of this was going to be blamed at least in part on him. He wondered whether he actually cared any more.

“Ryuk,” Mello cuddled up to his Shinigami friend, “Is there anything that would stop you killing some of the people on the television?”

“Nope,” the Shinigami grinned, taking out his Notebook and holding it open, poised. “Which ones?”

“Does the solution have to be murder?” Kit pleaded, disturbed.

“It would stop them,” Mello promised. “A few to save many.”

“Ryuk,” Light pointed to one of the figures on screen, one of the ringleaders from the anti-Kira side. The Shinigami’s pen wrote quickly and the man clutched at his chest, collapsing dead to the floor. The Kira supporting crowd cheered, excited that Kira had stepped in to help them.

“We need to get a message to them,” Light typed quickly at the computer. “We have to tell them that it is Kira’s will that this fighting stop.”

“Uh, Light?” Mello watched uncomfortably as one of the Kira supporters was seen to be wielding a chair leg as a weapon and advancing on a group of young men and women from the anti-Kira side.

“Yeah, Ryuk, him too,” Light agreed without a second thought, and the Shinigami considered for a second before writing the name.

“I can’t kill anyone who is actually going to kill someone,” Ryuk reminded him. “I wouldn’t die for it but I’m not meant to deliberately extend a life…”

“But if they’re going to do serious damage, but not kill?”

“Then that’s okay,” Ryuk agreed happily.

“Well, keep it to that,” Light continued to be distracted by what he was doing on the computer, and suddenly loudly enough to be picked up over the chaos there were a mass of message alerts from the phones of the crowd on the television screen.

“Think they’re actually going to read that?” Mello questioned as the fighting paused for only a second before starting again, the mass message all but ignored.

But across the screen a few solitary figures in safer areas amongst the crowd had paused and checked their phones and were shouting to all the others that they had to stop, were wrestling the pro-Kira supporters away and dragging them behind the assembling police line, and more and more began to separate apart.

“Kill the stragglers,” Light commanded Ryuk once all but a very few were away from the fight, checking his watch. Kit protested, and Koinu growled, but Ryuk scratched the names into his notebook without hesitation.

“What message did you send them?” Mello wondered, studying the crowd as they surrendered to the police. Light spun the computer screen.

_Stand down. Kira shall kill any who disobey when the clock strikes the hour._

“And they just… believed that you were Kira?”

“I don’t think they wanted to take the risk,” Light shrugged. He was typing again, and a further message went through to all of the phones. He spun the screen to Mello, smirking darkly.

_Kneel before Kira and pledge your loyalty._

“You can’t be serious,” Mello groaned, dropping his head into his hands, exasperated as on the screen, one by one at first but then almost like a wave in the sea of bodies, the Kira supporters began to kneel. “L’s really not going to be happy.”

Light was watching the supporters crowd with interest, picking out the very few who remained standing and glancing at Ryuk.

“No!” Mello snatched Ryuk’s pen from his talons before he could write. “You’re not killing them just because they haven’t knelt.”

Light scowled at him, sitting back in his chair and considering. “You know, Mello, L only left the room so that he could plausibly deny that he didn’t know e _xactly_ what I was going to do.”

“That doesn’t make it right,” Mello argued. “L’s compromised…”

“And what about you?” Light questioned. “This is reality now, Mello, thanks to your good old friend Near. This is the world now; you’re either with me, with Kira, or against me. What’s it going to be?”

“I’m with L,” Mello reminded him.

“Well then,” Light chuckled. “It’s only a matter of time.”

* * *

 

L crouched on the bed, staring blankly at the wall as he considered his options.

Near had put them in an impossible position.

L had wanted to make a world where Light-Kira could be part of the existing justice system, where they could work together to solve crimes and where Light-Kira’s ability to execute was used when appropriate in both their views to dispatch only the very worst criminals. In his ideal reality Kira would remain, would exist, but he would be balanced by reason and perhaps yes, by L.

However, Near’s declaration to the world that Kira had to be stopped had already caused so much unrest that this seemed an impossible future to achieve, even if Light-Kira was willing to allow it. And Light-Kira’s patience with him had run out.

Light-Kira had been trying so very hard for him, doing so very well, but he had snapped and now he was no longer even trying to stay within the boundaries of L’s approval.

L, ultimately, had two main options; he could side against Light-Kira, could decide that Kira’s way of doing things was entirely intolerable to him and that he would try to stand against him even though that would mean the inevitability of one of their deaths – or both, with L’s death likely coming the first.

That option seemed distasteful to him. L had a strong sense of justice, of what was right and what was wrong, but that had been instilled in him based on rules that the world had decided arbitrarily and which he had never really taken much interest in. Indeed, he flaunted those rules himself frequently on cases without care or regard for how that would affect others, all for the win. Light-Kira’s motives were at least in part far more noble than his own. True that Kira wanted the world to bow at his feet, but that had always been a secondary motivation. He wanted to rid the world of crime and of evil, and that was a noble mission that L could attest to.

Watching the riot in the Disney park, L’s first thought was of how stupid humanity truly was. These people, thousands of them, had been stirred up in one night by a teenage boy and his computer – a Wammy’s boy, a genius, but all the same. When he looked at the riot, the crowd of people reminded him of cattle being led to the slaughter rather than intelligent sentient beings.

He considered the fall in crime rate that Light-Kira had achieved, even with his ability to act limited by the pre-existing justice system. He considered all the wars and fights that broke out worldwide for the most ridiculous reasons, often because the governments of countries just couldn’t get along.

He wondered what Near had planned, when he started this. No doubt his first hope would be for L to try to stand against Kira, to break their teamwork and then be able to pick them off one by one. Near would seek to destroy the justice system, to take that place for himself once he had the Notebook and had defeated Kira and L, would consider this his ultimate victory.

And he considered a world with one singular voice, a guiding hand amongst the darkness, the chaos and the destruction. A single influence with ultimate power to stop anyone who would cause death and war, who would be able to take away that worst aspect of humanity who succumbed to the temptation to harm others.

The world was rotten, had always been rotten. He had known this since the very beginning, since his earliest memories. People killed people, hurt people, destroyed one another on a daily basis. The justice system was fallible, the line between right and wrong often blurred.

He didn’t think that Light-Kira’s God complex was a positive thing for the world, he didn’t think that Kira was always going to be good. But in a choice between the chaos that Near could bring versus Kira, L would choose Kira.

L had tried, so very hard, to remain on the right side of the line as the world would see it, but the world was changing, so many of the people crying out for Kira’s justice.

L hadn’t been able to trust Light-Kira during all of that time when Light-Kira had tried so hard and been so good for him, had followed his rules and all but given up being Kira for him. L had never been able to trust him with it, because Light-Kira and he were so very similar, and he could not trust himself to follow the rules, either.

He was compromised; he was biased. But he was never wrong.

His fingers brushed the cover of the Notebook, concealed beneath his baggy top, the pages calling to him.


	10. Decision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Faced with the challenge from Near, and finally (finally - yes I've been as impatient for it as you all too!) acknowledging how he feels about Kira and Kira's justice, L takes his opportunity to consider his options and makes his choice.

“L?” Kit spoke quietly from the doorway, some hours after L had secluded himself in the bedroom whilst Light dealt with the Florida riot. “Can I come in?”

“Kit,” L waved her over to where he was laid flat on his back on the bed, spread eagled. She perched on the edge of the bed beside him as he stared up at the ceiling.

“He had Ryuk… no, _he_ killed people,” Kit stated, a gross oversimplification but she could hardly think how to explain what she had seen. “He killed them, and then he just went back to being Light again.”

“He’s always Light-Kira,” L glanced at her but quickly back to the blank white paint. “Did it upset you?”

“I… yes, of course it did,” Kit frowned, confused by the reaction. “He _killed people_ , L. Isn’t this what you’re meant to be stopping?”

“I’m not _meant_ to do anything,” L reminded her. “I take cases for my own amusement, I call myself justice and break the law without a thought.”

“You’ve given up,” Kit accused.

“I’ve given in,” L corrected. “Kit, I’d have fought him for the rest of my life if that was what it took to keep Justice alive, but now?”

“Surely you can stop Near without having to give in to Kira?”

“Maybe I could,” L allowed. “Maybe we could, as a team.”

“But you don’t want to,” Kit recognised.

“No.”

“But…”

“Kit, if you no longer want us here we can move on,” L offered simply. “You don’t have to side with Kira, you have done your part, given us this place as a bolt hole for as long as we needed it. We can move on now if you would prefer it.”

“I…” Kit scowled. “I don’t… you shouldn’t go, I just… I want to understand.”

“That’s very generous,” L was surprised. “Remind me to give you a strawberry, later.”

“They’re my strawberries anyway,” Kit’s lips twitched into the smallest of smiles. “L?”

L sighed heavily. “Near has never been someone who will settle for half measures. The way he has orchestrated this to throw the world into chaos, he will seek to overthrow worldwide justice systems and perhaps governments. He will seek power, seek to rule. The ultimate victory. His ambition is no less than Kira’s ever was.”

“I understand why you need to stop Near,” Kit agreed. “If I’m honest, that kid always did freak me out. What I don’t understand is why you would just accept that Kira’s rule would be any better?”

“I’m not saying Kira should just be allowed to be God of the New World,” L pointed out, “Although that might be inevitable at this point. Mello and I will still try to keep his head out of the clouds, but the way Near has set this up, either Kira wins or Light-Kira dies.”

“And you want to keep him?”

“Yes.”

“You love him?”

“I… care about him,” L hedged. “I am… unfamiliar, with love.”

“You love him,” Kit determined firmly. “What if Light’s not the same, when he’s Kira?”

“Light-Kira is one and the same,” L restated, “but even if not, it’s not Light we need right now. The world needs Kira.”

Kit frowned at the detective where he lay on the bed. When he had come in to the room she had thought that he looked hopeless, but the more she looked the more she realised that she had been reflecting her own emotions on him; he didn’t look hopeless at all. In fact, she had never seen him look so relaxed, so peaceful.

“Light said you came through here for plausible deniability,” Kit told him. “He said you knew he was going to kill.”

“I did,” L admitted readily. “But he’s wrong about the denial. I truly did just need the space to think. It is… difficult, when he’s around.”

Kit couldn’t help but laugh at the look of consternation on L’s face at that.

“You’re obsessed.”

“Perhaps a little,” L smiled sweetly back.

“So, did it help?” she asked. “Do you have a plan?”

“A few,” L nodded, “although the first is just to let Kira take the lead on this one.”

“You said Kira that time,” Kit pointed out. “Not Light-Kira.”

“It seems silly, to continue to distinguish the two,” L shrugged.

“Well,” Kit glanced to the doorway. “ _Kira_ has made macarons, if you’d like to join us?”

L sat up quickly, grinning broadly.

“Strawberry ones?”

“Blackberry, from the bushes outside,” Kit may be uncomfortable with the situation still, but it was difficult to remain sombre when the childish detective was bounding out of the room as fast as his legs could carry him, looking like a kid at Christmas. “Save some for the rest of us.”

L rushed more quickly into the kitchen, snatching one of the few macarons that Light had completed from the afternoon tea tray here he had started to neatly arrange them. As soon as he had entered the room he had noticed Light freeze, hands mid-way through sticking two halves of a macaron together with the cream, watching him suspiciously.

“These are good,” L spoke around the first of the macarons, gathering six more from the tray and perching at the breakfast bar. His legs dangled from the stool, not bothering with his deductive crouch; he had no plans to make. He began to stack the macarons one on top of the other, balancing five easily and eating the sixth.

“You’re plotting something,” Light set another macaron on the tea tray, not looking away from L. The detective snatched it straight away, adding it to his stack.

“How did you stop the riot, in the end?” L asked curiously, careful to be sure there was no bite in his tone that Light could misattribute.

“The footage is saved,” Light told him coolly, “you should watch it before you decide what you’re planning to do, Lawliet.”

L snatched another macaron from his stack, humming contentedly as he bit into it. He held it up between two fingers, studying the blackberry jam and cream where they formed a layer in the middle; he would have to get Light to make these again, they were delicious. He heard the warning note in Light’s voice, understood the quiet threat in the use of his name and ignored them both.

“You killed them, didn’t you?” L waved a macaron in Light’s direction. “Kit told me. How many?”

“Worse,” Mello had the file open on the laptop, setting it down beside L, who stuffed two macarons into his mouth at the same time as he watched the way the crowd suddenly began to stop themselves from within, to retreat and then to kneel. As they fell to their knees, L choked on the macarons, forgetting to swallow, and spluttered as he tried not to laugh.

“Fetish,” he managed to force out, pointing at Light accusingly. The younger man flushed, glaring.

“Is that a problem?” he grumbled.

“Nope,” L grinned broadly, and Mello groaned, closing the laptop with a snap. Light blinked at him, evidently expecting a different reaction.

“Guys, you’re fucking, we get it,” the teenager complained. “People are dying. Can we concentrate, please?”

“Says Mello,” Light grinned, mischief glinting.

“Mello’s being the responsible one?” L ruffled the boy’s hair, getting gel on his hand and wincing at the sticky sensation, wiping it away on his jeans. Mello’s hair stuck out in all directions, looking much like a blonde version of L’s unkempt mess.

“Hell’s frozen over,” Light tossed the baking tray, the last of the macarons completed, into the sink. “L’s sitting up straight and like a normal person, Mello’s being responsible… and Kit’s being quiet.”

“Hey, I’m not going to be a part of your mess,” Kit scoffed, hugging Koinu close where she curled up on the sofa. “You boys can sort yourselves out.”

“I don’t like you being responsible, Akane,” Ryuk grumbled, claws messing with Mello’s already spoiled hairstyle, forming it into tall spikes.

“Near’s plotting to tear the world apart, Light’s Kira again, you killed people for him Ryuk, and L’s just… eating macarons and flirting.”

“You blew up half of Disney,” Light pointed out. “And you were the one who convince Ryuk to help kill people.”

“Exactly! I fucked up too, we need help,” Mello caught L’s hand before he could take the last macaron. “We need you to pull yourself together. What are we going to do, L?”

L shook his hand free of Mello’s grasp, snatching the last macaron and considering it carefully.

“Light-Kira,” he asked, “what do _you_ think I should do?”

Light’s eyes narrowed, suspicious once more.

“Is this meant to be a test?” he challenged.

“Not at all,” L shrugged. After a few moments and when Light didn’t answer, L huffed, leaving the breakfast bar and stood waiting for Light to join him in the living room. Only once Light sat in one of the chairs did L settle, not on a chair but on the floor at Light’s feet, leaning his head on Light’s knee.

“We’re doing this your way, this time.”

Light frowned at the back of L’s head, surprised. “You trust me?”

“Yes.”

“Since when?”

“Since I stopped asking you to pretend to be someone you’re not,” L sighed. “You don’t have to hide any more, Light-Kira. Near has made this personal, he’s challenging Kira, and the only way to win is for you to take him on full force.”

“So you’re siding with Kira?” Light couldn’t help but still suspect.

“Yes.”

“Even though I’m going to kill people?”

“Yes,”

“Hypocrite,” Light tugged on L’s hair. “All this time, and now you just cave in?”

“It’s Kira or Near,” L reasoned. “You’ve done things my way for as long as that was going to work. It’s only fair that I should do the same for you.”

* * *

 

“What are you doing?” Near questioned as Beyond Birthday snatched up the boy’s computer, flicking through the anti-Kira forums.

“I’m better at this,” Beyond snapped at him, kicking him in the thigh right where the knife had stabbed the night before and re-opening the wound. “You go play with your toys or something.”

“What about the pro-Kira side?” Near tried to put pressure on the wound to stop the trickle of blood, but it was painful and he struggled to apply enough pressure to make a difference. Beyond giggled.

“Kira’s there to rally the troops,” Beyond told him. “He can handle it himself now.”

“L hasn’t stopped him?” Near questioned.

“Nope,” Beyond giggled. “He figured it out faster than you thought, munchkin.”

Near maintained his emotionless expression, but internally he was seething. He had spent so long admiring L, wanting to learn from him. How could he have idolised such a man when he could be swayed so easily by an emotional response? Logically L should be standing against Kira even now, recognising that Kira would use this conflict to advance his own purpose.

Still, L should at least stay out of this battle. The only possible outcome for L in supporting Kira, rather than standing apart from this fight, would be for Kira to win outright and become the figurehead at the forefront of a new world order. L’s foolish affection for Kira surely should not be enough to taint his judgement so badly to allow Kira that victory. No, L should remain neutral.

If L didn’t remain neutral they could lose the fight before it had begun.

“It doesn’t matter, he can’t have given Kira my name or I’d already be dead, that means that he’s still not on Kira’s side.”

“Don’t count on it,” Beyond laid down on the floor, the computer rested on his folded knees as he continued to type. “L might just want you alive and suffering for pissing him off. He’s done it before.”

Beyond gestured to himself to make his point.

“That sentiment is weakness, and he will lose,” Near reminded. “Still, if there’s a chance L’s on Kira’s side, we need to move more quickly. Can you push things forwards a little?”

“More riots, more killing?” Beyond beamed. “Sure.”

* * *

 

“There are riots in Times square, and throughout London,” Mello reluctantly told them after a search of the news online. “More in France and Germany… It’s spreading.”

“The Kira supporters are mostly behaving,” Light had been on the message boards all day, and his work had been to make sure those who declared their support for Kira were not going to give him a bad name with their actions. “Which means that these riots are anti-Kira.”

“And supported by Near,” L suggested, finding footage from relevant CCTV networks and bringing them up on the laptop. He missed having his computer array from the Florida house where he would have been able to bring up footage of several riots all at once.

“If we were to kill the ringleaders, the rest would disperse,” Light suggested.

“It wouldn’t help them think good things about Kira, though,” Kit pointed out. Koinu had left her lap and was perched beside Light on the arm of the chair, watching his computer screen.

“We need to get the word out that Near’s accusations that Kira is killing these torture victims is a lie,” Light suggested. “I’ve done all I can through the pro-Kira side, but we need a public face to come forward and speak.”

“Do you have anyone in mind?”

“There are some possibilities,” Light suggested, pulling up a couple of pictures. “People I knew in Japan, who I’ve spotted again on the pro-Kira message boards. Takada in particular is already in the media over there, she is using an alias online but I think I could use her to get the message out. If she were to film it in all different languages it could be sent around the globe.”

“Who’s the other man?”

“He’s called Mikami,” Light maximised the picture. “He’s a criminal prosecutor and he’s very open on the message boards about who he is and that he supports Kira. If we had any difficulty with Takada, he’d be the next one I’d suggest.”

“Do you think you can get a message to them without Near being able to trace it?”

“Easily,” Light agreed.

“Then you can work on that,” L agreed. “Ryuk, could you kill the ringleaders for the riots if I bring up the footage?”

“Maybe,” Ryuk shifted uncomfortably. “The more I do, the riskier it gets though. I’m not going to endanger my own life or get myself punished for you humans, no matter how interesting you are.”

“You have facial recognition software,” Mello reminded L. “Why don’t you use that, then Kira can just kill the people he needs to?”

“It’s slow,” L pointed out, “and we need quick results…”

“This would be easier if you could just tell us the names, Ryuk,” Light suggested to the Shinigami. “Or give one of us the eyes.”

“It’s just half your life span,” Ryuk offered. “The deal’s there if you want to take it.”

“We’ll use the software,” L intervened swiftly, though he doubted Light was seriously going to consider making the deal. He tore a page from the Notebook under his clothing, holding it out to Mello. “If you’re the one writing you can keep some control over it?”

Mello hesitantly accepted the page but appreciated L’s point. At least this way he could make sure Light wasn’t the one writing in the Death Note and couldn’t just write Near’s name.

“Does Light know Near’s real name?” Mello suddenly wondered, trying to think back to whether it had ever been spoken in Kira’s presence.

“Nate,” Light glanced up. “Rem said it, once. But the last name, not yet.”

“What about mine?”

“…No,” Light thought hard, but couldn’t recall it ever being mentioned.

It was a small reassurance, that Kira did not know their names and they had some protection against him, but not much of one when Mello considered that L knew both of their names in full and if he decided that he had enough of trying to stop Near rather than just kill him he could give Light the name or even write it himself. Mello kept the Death Note page anyway, following L’s instructions on the three from the London riot who were the ones most stirring the crowd, the four from Paris and more again across Europe.

“It does calm them down for now,” L approved, a couple of hours later once all of the crowds had dispersed. “But I do suspect it is only a matter of time before those ringleaders will be counted as martyrs to the cause.”

“That will be the purpose of the message from Takada,” Light agreed. “She has agreed to do it, by the way. I have written her a script, and it should be on the worldwide news in the next few hours.”

“Will she be safe?” Kit worried.

“Mikami has a very secure home,” Light explained. “I have arranged for him to take Takada in after the filming but before the broadcasts worldwide. She will be safe until we need her again.”

Like a tool, Mello thought, a pawn for Kira to use and dispose of as he saw fit.

“How do you think Near will respond to a direct challenge like this?” Light questioned L curiously.

“Not well,” the detective shrugged. “He could respond… violently. However, if he had simply wanted you dead he could have arranged that in America.”

“He could arrange that here,” Kit realised, “he was involved when I met you, he’d know my address.”

“There are many other places we could have gone…” L began, but paused. “Although I suppose the main ones I am thinking of all have cameras monitoring them. Hold on…”

Light had continued on the computer, delighting in the message boards and gathering his supporters around the world from a distance. L took it back from him now, quickly working on hacking into his own security systems.

“As a detective I have earned a fair amount of money, and Watari has invested it wisely,” L explained. “I have been aiming to build bases of operations in all major locations where I frequently investigate crimes. I commissioned one in Edinburgh after we met you Kit, and there are already several in American cities, other European countries and a few scattered elsewhere. The biggest one would be Japan, since I thought we might be staying there some time for the Kira case…”

L trailed off, a frown growing.

“I have checked the cameras of the L headquarters in all countries except Japan,” he told them whilst he worked. “Japan seems to have been blocked to me. The cameras appear to be running but the encoding is scrambled.”

“Let me see?” Light demanded, taking the computer. Though he worked on it as well he couldn’t get access.

“Mello, could you contact Matt?” L questioned.

“Who’s Matt?” Light wondered.

“Third in the line of succession,” L explained. “Although I always favoured him more as the next Watari. His computing skills alone would make him perfect for the role.”

“Would they really use the Japanese L headquarters as their base?” Light puzzled.

“Yes,” Mello seemed sure. “Near would appreciate the sense of victory from doing this right under L’s own roof.”

“I like Near less and less by the day,” Light considered.

“You can’t just kill him,” L argued before he could suggest it again. “Especially now. Kira has to be seen to win.”

“Fine,” Light allowed, a little bitter. He glanced at the television screen, which had cut to a location in the Ukraine where a group of Kira supporters were protesting, under attack from armed police. Their banners called for justice. “L, how extensive is this facial recognition software?”

It wasn’t perfect by a long way, L knew. No matter how good his own technology was, he had to rely on the public databases for the faces it recognised, and that wasn’t available much of the time. While the software was very good in America, in Eastern Europe and other areas with less developed ID systems this couldn’t give them a name for a face.

“I will see what I can do,” L promised, “Perhaps Kira would like to rest a while?”

L could see the tiredness in Light’s posture, no longer ramrod straight backed and perfect, just a slight slump to his shoulders giving him away. He didn’t keep track of time himself but it was getting very late in Scottish time and that would be compounded by jet lag.

“Can I trust you to continue to obey?” Light questioned, a sharpness in his eyes. “If I wake handcuffed to the bed…”

“Kira-kun might handcuff me to the bed if he does not trust me?” L suggested with sudden eagerness, his face lighting up with delight. “Mello could handle the riots…”

“Mello will not,” Mello complained. “If someone has to stay up all night it has the be the fucking insomniac, otherwise what’s the point of you?”

“True,” Light laughed. “You have the Notebook?”

L took it out from under his shirt, keeping it close. Light considered him for a few moments, then grinned.

“Make yourself useful.”


	11. Recovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> L has (finally) decided that in a battle between Kira and Near, he sides with Kira. Now he is faced with making up for all the trouble he's given Light over the last months, along with deciding the price that he's willing to pay for Kira's victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so this was that chapter that I got stuck on for about 6 weeks! Honestly I'd written up to this point by about halfway through posting DD murders, and then I got stuck here and couldn't get any further. It spawned a whole different fic (corruption) not to mention The Other Half. I've finally settled on a version of this chapter that I kind of like but I'd love to know what you think - does this one work?  
> ps about Ryuk's interpretation of the rules of the Note - they may not always be quite right. Rem always more clued up on them than he was.

L, for the first time in his life, thought he may actually be overthinking things.

Kira’s last order before he went to bed was that L should make himself useful. It seemed like he meant by killing the ringleaders of the riots and keeping them suppressed overnight, but L knew that Kira was prone to giving instructions within instructions. He also knew that he needed to ingratiate himself with Light after so long of distrusting him. Light was still angry with him, after all.

So, he needed to do something more than just keep riots at bay. They would need to do more than that to win this fight. Even the world’s greatest ever propaganda campaign would not be good enough. If they wanted to win they needed something better.

Light was right. The most logical step was to kill Near. L scolded his own sentimentality that he would not allow it. However, Mello still cared for Near so even if L was willing to deny his responsibility for the youngest Wammy’s boy in the line of succession he was conscious that harming Near would likely harm Mello’s own mental health. It was for this reason that Beyond Birthday was still alive; L had realised that killing him would adversely affect him. This kind of emotional reaction was dangerous in a detective of their calibre and it would not do to have such a weakness.

Mello needed to become the next L. He was the only one in the line of succession. That meant that L had to carefully raise him into the role and killing Near would definitely be problematic for that plan.

That wasn’t to say he wouldn’t do it, if he had no other choice. But for now they had options.

For now, L thought, Near had done enough damage to the world to make it unstable, but not enough that when the dust settled the path to power would be paved with gold for Kira to walk. They needed Near for a while longer yet.

However, there were surely other ways L could make himself useful. He fully intended to wake Kira with a very happy surprise, for example, and he was already trying to work out how he could cover Light’s cock in sugar syrup without waking him so that when he did perform oral sex he would be able to moan shamelessly like the actors in all those films he had watched for… research.

It was difficult, writing names in the Notebook at first, but after the first few L realised that even without the Notebook drawing him in by being in his possession he adjusted, little by little, to seeing those who he had deemed needed to die collapse with the Note’s power. It was a heady feeling to have that power, and that without the influence of the Notebook. Each person he killed needed to die; Kira supporters bringing a bad name to Kira. Kira opposition who would harm the innocents and more importantly innocent Kira supporters who stood in their way.

As he worked, trying his best to keep up with so many riots worldwide, the facial recognition software was problematic; compared to what he was needing it was slow and didn’t always work, and there might be another way for L to make himself useful. A way that he could be absolutely indispensable to Kira.

“Ryuk,” he questioned after the facial recognition software failed on another of the ones he needed to kill. “Is there any way you could tell me the names of the people on screen?”

“Nope,” Ryuk, who had lounged on the sofa since he had decided to stay in the living room with L whilst all the others slept, grinned. “It’s against the rules.”

L hesitated, measuring how much he wanted to be useful to Light, how much he would give to win in this conflict with Near.

“Ryuk?” he interrupted the Shinigami again as the shadowy figure chomped on an apple. “What about the eye deal, can it be made with someone who uses the Notebook but isn’t the one who owns it?”

“Ah, no,” Ryuk considered carefully. “No, I don’t think there’s any way. Kinda tied to the notebook not the Shinigami.”

“What about if someone else agreed to be the one to give half their lifespan rather than the owner of the notebook?”

“Definitely not,” Ryuk sniffed, looking above L’s head. The glance gave L pause.

“Can you tell us how long we would have?” L questioned, seeing that he had interpreted correctly from Ryuk’s expression.

“No,” Ryuk was snappy, as irritated as the Shinigami ever tended to get from being asked so many impossible questions. “It’s one of the rules, I can’t tell you someone’s lifespan.”

“But mine isn’t very long,” L was certain from the Shinigami’s expression and body language. “What about Light’s?”

“Ah, can’t tell that,” Ryuk ruffled his wing feathers. “Numbers mean nothing if you have a Death Note.”

“So it’s possible to change a lifespan with the Notebook?” L hadn’t been aware of that, but he was already sure that Ryuk was leading him to a conclusion that he was not allowed to tell them.

“Yup,” the Shinigami nodded almost eagerly, waiting. When L didn’t expand on his conclusion, he winced a little. “A Shinigami can’t extend a human life by using the Notebook…”

“But a human can,” L concluded gratefully. “So if Light uses the Notebook to eliminate the one who would kill me, my lifespan would be extended?”

“That’s right,” Ryuk grinned.

L could foresee one huge problem with that; what if Light wasn’t interested in saving him? Why would he be, since L had been nothing but a hindrance in his plans all along? L was not such a fool as to think Kira would hold any sort of sentiment towards him now that it would be of no advantage to him to keep him on his side. L still held the Notebook, for now, but even he was sure that if Light asked it of him he would hand it over at this point, without hesitation.

If only Light were not a liar, if only Kira had been telling the truth only days before when he had declared that he loved L.

If he wanted to stay with Light and to continue to live, he had to redouble his efforts, make himself useful to Kira.

L considered the people on the television, particularly that unidentified heavy man with the pickaxe he had smashed through a police officer’s helmet.

The greatest way that L would have been able to make himself useful would be to take the Shinigami eyes. Since Light would be able to extend his lifespan anyway using the Notebook, he could have made himself so valuable to Light for his eyes that he would have been able to be sure he could continue to help. Getting the eyes would also have helped Kira to advance his goals and to oppose Near.

L considered whether there was anything else he could do to help Kira but could think of very little else that would be so valuable at that point as Shinigami eyes.

A name, just from seeing a face.

There was someone else who could tell a name only by looking at a face, of course, but it would be hugely risky.

Beyond Birthday.

A set of those vital Shinigami eyes, and their owner was sat in a prison near LA.

Although it would be dangerous, and entirely possible that they would be faced with outright refusal, it would be wholly possible that Beyond Birthday could agree to help them. Beyond loved chaos, and what was such a worldwide fight but chaos? Not to mention that if he agreed to help them, he would automatically get out of his prison cell. L would be admitting that Beyond was better than him at something, which would appeal to the madman’s oversized ego. And he would get to kill, indirectly, but he would be the cause of death for people that he would see die and that would no doubt appeal to him too.

Would L need to trade with Beyond in order to get him on side? Probably. Certainly. Was there a price that he would be willing to pay to bring Beyond in on the case? Of course. If it would help Kira he would pay an awful lot.

Beyond might want his blood. More concerning for L, Beyond might want his body.

So long as Beyond’s price was not his life, he would pay it. If it was required of him, he was entirely capable of detachment, of laying back and thinking of Kira.

He called the prison, not sure what time it would be in LA and not bothering to think it through. He didn’t care anyway, there would always be a guard on to answer.

There was, but though they answered the phone they sounded half asleep. This was the phone line to the guard right at Beyond’s cell entrance, not the prison as a whole. If a guard had been sleeping no doubt Beyond would have been getting up to more mischief.

“L, we have been waiting for you to call,” the man told him in a concerning monotone that L initially dismissed as being present only because the man had only just woken up.

“Yes. I would speak with Beyond Birthday. Put me through,” L didn’t waste time mincing his words for the no doubt simple guard. A direct instruction should be enough.

“Ah, detective, perhaps you haven’t worked it out yet,” the guard giggled, a mad giggle. A Beyond Birthday puppet giggle. L did not openly react, but he could feel his heart skipping a beat. “Beyond isn’t at home right now. He can’t come out and play.”

“What do you mean he isn’t at home?” L was concerned, quickly tapping in to the security footage live from Beyond’s cell on his laptop. There was the Hannibal cage, and true enough it was empty. “When did he leave?”

“A few days ago, detective, and look at the mess he’s made already,” the guard’s giggling continued. “Isn’t he magnificent? He burns like the sun…”

L put the phone down, glared at it, then picked it up and threw it at the opposite wall, the top and bottom halves of the flip phone breaking in to separate pieces on impact.

Conclusions raced.

Why hadn’t he thought of this before?

Perhaps he had, or he would have, but he had been trying not to think about these things, trying to follow Kira’s lead. He should have been focusing less on finding supernatural ways to help Kira and making himself useful with his talents. He should have been doing the thinking, allowing Kira to focus on doing.

Beyond Birthday was out of prison. There were riots worldwide. Beyond would be right at the epicentre of as many of those as possible if he was out of prison. If L hadn’t known better he would almost have thought that Beyond may be the one doing all of this, the one causing all this chaos.

Unless… no, he wouldn’t have. Surely he wouldn’t…

Could he have joined forces with Near? Together Near and Beyond Birthday would be a very dangerous partnership. Both were intelligent. Both lacked a sense of morality. Near was focused on the win, and who knew what Beyond was focused on any more. Did he still care about being greater than L? Did he still want to take that title? Did he now just want the win, like Near?

Beyond was proudly dominant in any situation. He wouldn’t agree to follow the lead of a thirteen-year-old boy. A joint venture was possible, but if Beyond was out of prison and Near was still trying to pretend he was in charge of the situation the boy was more arrogant than L had realised.

Beyond, out of prison. Plans began to form, but L suppressed them all. He had agreed to follow Kira’s lead. He should be thinking for himself, but planning would wait until Kira was there by his side to plan with him.

Of course, that meant that Kira would have to know. He would have to tell him.

Except L knew that Kira was already angry with him. He had yet to redeem himself. He was certainly not the right person to be the messenger. Kira might just take out any anger on him, and he may not survive such a punishment.

So what could he do? If he told Mello, would the younger boy be able to pass on the information without attracting Kira’s wrath? No, that wouldn’t work. Mello’s reaction to any suggestion from L that Near would work with Beyond would be sceptical at best. L had effectively cried wolf on this when they had been dealing with the DD case, so he would probably not be believed. Even though Near was working against them, Mello would certainly still doubt that the boy would do something so… risky.

L would just have to find a way to tell Kira that would not destroy him.

This would all be so much easier if there was even a chance that Light actually did care about him and valued his life, even a little.

L decided that it would be best if he left the Notebook in the sitting room when he went through to the bedroom where Light was sleeping. Kira was perfect, even in his sleep, but then L might be a little biased. Indeed, there was a small pool of drool on the pillow where Light’s mouth was gawping wide open as he slept.

L didn’t see that as a flaw. _That_ was surely inspiration.

His own mouth could stretch open like that around Kira’s cock. That would surely be enough to remind Kira that he didn’t want to kill him, at least for a little while.

It helped that Kira was already hard in his sleep so that L only had to pull back the bedcovers and take the cock into his mouth, dextrous tongue teasing at the head before he sank down, swallowing to take Kira down the back of his throat without gagging.

Light’s whole body tensed, his eyes snapping open to regard L pleasuring him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded fiercely, though the answer was obvious. L hummed approvingly, not wanting to release the cock from his mouth to speak. “Did I give you permission to taste Kira’s cock?”

No, but L found that he could not be too concerned about that with that cock hard and throbbing between his lips and answered by stroking his tongue along the shaft, shrugging his shoulders.

Light was glaring at him, and he seemed to be considering whether demanding L stop would be more a punishment for L or for himself. It seemed that he decided the latter since he caught hold of L’s hair, forcing him to take the cock deeper until it was uncomfortable and difficult to breathe. L complied eagerly, tongue teasing where he could.

“On your back,” Kira commanded after a while, releasing L’s hair. The detective rushed to obey, wishing he had removed his clothing before he began, but Kira made no moves to remove it either. Kira slept naked when he was alone so he had no barriers between his own body and L, and he straddled the detective’s shoulders, facing the bottom of the bed. L had seen enough in his research to know exactly what Kira was wanting before he had to say it and traced his tongue over the gap between perfectly sculpted cheeks, glad that he tasted only soap and salt of a little sweat.

“How does that feel, L?” Kira questioned, cruelty in his tone, but L’s answering moan said it all. Perhaps Light intended to disgust him, perhaps the younger man considered that this should be humiliating for L, but the detective did not find it so. With free hands he spread Light’s ass for better access, firmly stroking his tongue around Light’s hole and tearing a groan from the younger man as he tried to resist it escaping.

“Like I am serving Kira,” L managed before pressing his tongue through that tight ring of muscle as far as he could. Kira’s breath escaped between his teeth in a hiss, back arching a little.

“Yes,” Kira hissed, one of his hands fisting around his cock, stroking swiftly and betraying how far gone into his arousal he already was. L tried to time the movements of his tongue to match the movements of Light’s hand, though he began to find that his tongue was hurting, cramping. His own pain was not relevant, not whilst he was bringing Kira pleasure.

When Light suddenly moved, L instinctively tried to follow, sitting up just a little before Light shoved him back down on to the bed, turning around where he was straddling his chest and ending up with his cock over L’s chin. The detective tried to lift his head to take the cock between his lips but Light’s hand in his hair stopped him.

“You might want to close your eyes,” Kira warned generously, still stroking his cock, just before he came. L parted his lips and caught what he could, but Kira aimed to avoid his mouth and cover his face. It was possessive, dominating, and L’s cock ached as he held still and allowed him this.

Eventually Light moved off him, lounging back into the pillows to recover. L managed to wipe the area around his eyes clean before he opened them, sucking the salty fluid from his fingers once he had. For a moment he wondered if Kira might permit him to do something about his own erection, but that question reminded him of the purpose for having woken Light in the first place and that erection began to wane on its own at the thought.

“Kira, I am sorry to have disturbed your sleep,” L wiped more of his face on the back of his arm, managing to spread the mixture of saliva and Kira’s come further rather than wipe it away.

“I presume you had a reason?” Light demanded, recovered quickly and now suspicious. L gulped, still tasting Kira on his tongue. Time, then, to take a chance, to put his life in Kira’s hands once more. Hopefully he had done enough to appease him for now.

“I have learned how Near is killing them,” L explained, sitting up into his crouch.

“Go on,” Light’s eyes narrowed as he regarded L suspiciously.

“Beyond Birthday has escaped from the prison,” L told him, casting his eyes down and tensing, waiting for Kira’s anger.

Light’s fingers wrapped around L’s chin, careful to avoid any wet areas. The detective took a deeper breath, expecting those fingers to move down, to constrict. To follow through on Kira’s threat from the night before to choke the life out of him.

Instead the hand just guided him to lift his head, to look up.

“L?” there was a curious look in Light’s eyes. No anger, only this odd expression that L could not place; concern and something else. “Are you afraid?”

“Yes, Kira,” he breathed.

“Truly afraid?” Light pressed. L couldn’t stop himself from tensing further as Light’s fingers ran down to wrap around his throat and constrict just a little. His gaze was searching, seeming to try to dig in to L’s mind.

“Yes, Kira,” he admitted reluctantly. Still that searching look.

“Are you hard?”

L blinked, surprised to realise that he was not.

This wasn’t a game. Not anymore. This was real; Kira could just kill him now, would surely not hesitate if he decided that L did not have enough value, and L found that he wanted to live.

He wanted to see Kira’s new world, and to help Kira create it.

“No, Kira.”

Light released his neck, also breaking that intense stare.

“What did you think I would do to you?” he asked, leaning back into the pillows. L frowned down at the bed, wanting to look at Light, wanting to see his expression to give him clues about the answer Kira wanted to hear, but he didn’t dare.

“I…” L nipped a fingertip between his teeth. “I thought you would be angry. I thought maybe…”

“That I would punch you?” Light suggested. “Or… worse?”

“I don’t know,” L admitted.

“…Do you want me to hurt you?”

“No,” L shrank into himself a little at the bite in Light’s tone.

“Did you think I would kill you?” Light asked, and L bit down on the fingertip as he shrugged.

“After all this time?” Light’s tone was disappointed and questioning and reassuring enough that L risked a glance at his expression; scowling, but not angry at all. Sad, a little, and concerned. “All that we’ve been through, you still think I could hurt you?”

L slowly nodded. Light still looked at him with that inexplicable concern, his shoulders slumped.

“Come here.”

L took a shuddering breath but obeyed the instruction, though it did not hold the normal commanding weight of Kira’s orders. He crawled across the bed to Light’s outstretched arms, and the younger man wrapped them around him, holding him close.

“I’m not going to kill you, L,” he promised. “I’m sorry, I haven’t exactly been encouraging you to think that have I?”

L shook his head where it rested on Light’s shoulder, long arms loosely returning the tight embrace.

“I _was_ angry,” he sighed. “I still am a little. You didn’t trust me, even when I was trying so hard to follow your rules. At the first sign that I might have broken them you jumped to the conclusion that it had to be me and look what happened.”

L nodded, curling in to his body tightly.

“It hurts me that you still think I would kill you,” Light told him. “Didn’t I tell you that I love you?”

“You were lying then,” L murmured sadly.

“I thought I was too,” Light admitted, finally releasing L from his arms so that he could look him in the eye. “You know, it made sense for you not to trust me. It shouldn’t have hurt me so much that you didn’t, unless…”

“Unless?” L breathed, hardly daring to believe, to trust, but he _had_ to trust Kira. He had made that choice. He _wanted_ to trust.

“Unless I actually did love you,” Light explained. “I still do, you ridiculous man.”

L could only stare, silently, taking in the honestly honest look that Light was projecting and wanting to trust.

Choosing to trust.

“I…” he hesitated. Would it be a lie? He hardly knew, had never been in love before. He would have to do some research, learn more about love than how it could motivate murders, crimes of passion. For now though… “I love you too.”

“You don’t have to say it just because I did,” Light smiled sadly. “Be sure, before you do.”

L nodded, considering Light.

“Come on,” Light reached behind L to lift the bedcovers. “It’s four in the morning and you’ve been awake for days. Get some sleep?”


	12. Chapter 12

Only a few hours of sleep could be extremely refreshing when waking in the arms of a man who loved you, L found that morning. In his sleep he had tangled his long limbs with Kira’s, clinging to him desperately. His subconscious was clearly a traitor, betraying his need to have Kira hold him close, to be loved by him.

Kira didn’t seem to mind, or perhaps that was the softer part of his personality that L had once distinguished as separate, as Light, but he could no longer draw such a line between the two. Perhaps he should pick one name and stick to it? Still, for as long as Light-Kira used both names depending on the situation, it was easier and made more sense to persist.

“Morning,” Light lazily opened his eyes as L tried to subtly untangle them, tried to reduce his embarrassment before Kira could wake. Light caught the leg that was folded over his waist before L could be startled and jolt it downwards where it would have knocked against Light’s hard cock. “Careful.”

L, realising the futility of trying to move away, curled back in to Light’s side.

“Good morning,” he smiled against Light’s shoulder. “Did you sleep well?”

“Hmm,” Light’s hand was straying, along L’s leg and between them to his hard cock, taking him in hand. “I had the strangest dream.”

“Oh?”

“You woke me up to pleasure me,” Light reminded him, stroking lazily at L’s cock. “To worship Kira.”

“Yes,” L breathed, rocking in to his hand.

“You have an exceptionally talented tongue.”

L found himself grinning inanely at the compliment, forcing himself to consciously run that tongue over both his lips in turn, to tease.

“Might I please Kira with my tongue again?” he requested eagerly.

“Not this morning,” Kira denied. “It has been too long, hasn’t it?”

A single of Kira’s fingers ran a circle around L’s entrance before slipping inside to the first knuckle. L, pressing back against the finger, trying to take it in more deeply, groaned. It certainly felt like too long, even though it had only been a few days.

“Yes, Kira,” he breathed, but Light only removed the finger, offering two others to L’s lips.

“We don’t have any lube,” Light reminded L as he scowled. The detective considered the fingers for a moment before reluctantly encouraging Light to let go of his cock and rushing through to the kitchen.

“L, I thought you were meant to stay up and deal with…” Mello began as L burst into the room, the television on and showing the riots. It was early yet, but the screen showed buildings burning. As L watched the camera panned across and cut to another country where he recognised the building, already lost to the flames, the Great Hall of the People in China. It was enough to make L pause, fingers halfway outstretched to pick up the bottle of cooking oil.

“The Notebook is on the table,” L told Mello, making his decision and snatching up the oil. Mello looked round in disbelief that L was not going to take any action, but on seeing the bottle of oil and L’s flush his eyes just widened.

“You have to be kidding,” the boy argued. “The world is burning and you’re just going to have sex?”

“Best thing to do at the end of the world,” L excused, tongue in cheek.

“L!”

“You can handle it,” L took on what he imagined to be a parental tone. “I have faith in you.”

“Ah, leave him,” Ryuk picked up the Notebook and offered it out to Mello. “Shame I can’t just give you this properly, Akane, you’d show them how it’s done.”

Mello huffed, letting the Shinigami hold the Notebook open for him to write in, looming over the chair.

“I wouldn’t be killing so many people Ryuk,” Mello reminded his Shinigami friend.

“You wouldn’t need to kill so many to be interesting,” Ryuk agreed, fluttering the Notebook in front of him as the images on the television changed again and L’s facial recognition software had a target to identify.

“Good, so…” L hesitated, but when Mello didn’t look round again he rushed out from behind the counter which had been hiding his – thankfully still clothed – obvious erection and returned to the bedroom where Light was sat on the edge of the bed, eyeing him suspiciously. L offered out the bottle of oil, but Light didn’t take it.

“You took a long time,” he scowled at him. “Far longer than it would take just to fetch that.”

L flushed. “Mello was awake.”

Light continued to regard him suspiciously, getting up from the bed to listen from the doorway, hearing the teen speaking with Ryuk. L watched as the door was locked and Light turned back to him, accepting the oil.

Of course, L understood the suspicion, could hardly feel angry that Light would treat him with caution now that their roles were reversed and Light was the one in control. He couldn’t be upset by it, so instead he found himself feeling just a little guilty that Light had to suspect him so. He reminded himself that he had to do something more, something that would prove beyond any doubt that he was on Light’s side.

But right now Light was watching him with an expectant look, the oil in one hand and carefully slicked fingers waiting, and L realised that he was still fully clothed.

Long fingers clawing desperately to remove the items quickly, tearing his jeans button from the fabric but not caring until he was holding them in his hand and a niggling reminder that Light would prefer things to be neat. Damned if he had the patience to fold them, but they were balled up and thrown in to the wash bin in the corner rather than discarded on the floor. His top followed so that he stood naked in front of Light, and immediately fell to his knees.

“Good,” Light was smiling a little, approving. “But maybe move to the bed?”

L scrambled to obey, initially facing away from Light (better to allow him to be fucked whilst Light stood, perhaps grasping his shoulders to keep him upright and to give himself leverage…) but Light rested the hand that had been holding the oil on his shoulder.

“Relax a little,” he laughed. “I’m flattered that you’re so eager, don’t get me wrong, but…”

“But?” L questioned, hesitant. What was wrong?

“It’ll still be me,” Light told him patiently. “It’s still Kira fucking you, whether I’m commanding you or not.”

L nodded slowly, thinking that perhaps he understood what Light was suggesting. He had openly asked for it a few days ago back at the Florida house; no games, no roleplay. What had he called it then? Just two adults in a healthy relationship for once…

L relaxed his pose, tempted to move in to his deductive crouch but aware from experience that whilst a perfectly pleasant angle for fucking, it was perhaps not what Light was wanting from him. Glancing to Light, he turned and laid back onto the bed, propped up partly by the pillows. Light watched as he tried futilely to arrange himself to look seductive.

“You’re still too tense,” he told the detective. “Maybe I can help with that?”

A little more oil was poured in to Light’s hands and spread across the detective’s chest when Light straddled his hips. L almost thought this was to be some sort of revenge for the cake frosting, but Light used the oil to massage him, kneading the tension from his muscles.

“Better,” Light praised once L was relaxed and all but his cock was soft and supple. He leaned down, kissing him gently. “Move your legs?”

L parted the long limbs, wrapping them around Light’s back as the younger man positioned himself between them, using oiled hands to wrap around his cock and begin to prepare his entrance as L rocked his hips upwards off the bed.

“Let me try something?” Light suggested, leaving L wanting as he claimed both his hands back to guide L’s legs over his shoulders, finding it easy to move into position to fuck L. “Damn it L, you’re flexible.”

The detective beamed with satisfaction, mind racing with thoughts of how he could use his flexibility to prove his value to Light, but they were chased away as soon as Light’s oil slicked cock pressed inside him.

“More,” L pleaded when Light moved slowly within him, trying to use legs over shoulders as leverage to move against him, to force him to move faster, harder.

“No,” Light refused, pressing forward and leaning further down over L so that he was looking him straight in the eye. “We’re doing this right this time.”

L gasped as he looked up into Light’s eyes, realising what Light meant only when Light held his eye, the intensity and the intimacy of this gentler treatment almost overwhelming. No games here, no barriers between them. This wasn’t fucking; this was something more than that.

“Light…” L breathed, and the younger man beamed.

It wasn’t Light’s hand around L’s cock, nor the base sensation of his cock spilling in his ass, that had L coming in the end. It was the intensity of his gaze, the caresses and the gentle touches, the murmured words of affection and even love that came with them.

“I do love you, you know,” Light reminded him when he eventually opened his eyes where he had laid down on the bed, relaxing in the afterglow. L was watching him with wide eyes, crouched, a fingertip nipped between his teeth.

“Yes,” L released the fingertip, which seemed to taste unpleasantly of oil anyway. “I do.”

Light chuckled, stretching his muscles. Joints popped and cracked. L watched him, resisting the temptation to bite his disgusting oil-contaminated fingertip again as he thought, but perhaps thinking was not the right way to decide this.

Instead he considered how he felt, not just then with such an intimate moment, but overall.

“Light?” he spoke up before the younger man could leave the bed. “I do love you, too.”

Light studied him, slowly smiling.

“I know,” he allowed. “I’ve known for a while. Why else do you think I was putting up with all that melodrama and internal conflict?”

“I don’t know,” L blushed, not trying to think it through.

“Well, now you do,” Light stretched once more, all the way back until finally his shoulder cracked loudly.

“You sound like an old man,” L laughed at him.

“I know you are, but what am I?” Light teased childishly. “Maybe you can do all the work next time, see how your joints sound after that.”

“I will,” L grinned, already thinking of what he could do, how best to ride Kira’s cock to please him.

“I’m going to take a shower. Could you put some clothes on and check how Mello’s doing, then you should have a turn while I make breakfast.”

“Yes, Kira,” L found the button lost from his jeans when he stepped on it on the way to the dressing table and stood on one foot for a few moments whilst he removed it from between his toes, his balance perfect. When he looked up Light was still looking at him, or more specifically his ass when he had bent down. L shot a grin at him before he flushed a little and determinedly made for the bathroom.

Without a distraction, L was unable to resist worrying about the world outside, the disaster he had seen on the television. The Great Hall of the People, burning. Others around the world, important enough to make the same news reel – perhaps governments also, ones that L had yet to visit in his career, most of his work occurring behind a computer.

Near would destroy the world to bring about a new one. There was no doubt in his mind that Near and Beyond were orchestrating these riots, feeding fuel to the fire.

A cold-hearted part of him was reluctant to get involved, seeing the logical conclusion of these events.

As governments fell, there would be a vacuum for power. This would usually be further catalyst for war, but the factions had already been decided in advance, and they were coordinating in a way that had never been seen before; over the internet, worldwide armies of soldiers and civilians both. Kira’s supporters, and those who would stand against him.

Near was the main figurehead for those who would stand against Kira. Without him, they would fall in line, perhaps reluctantly. Near was surely counting on the same from the Kira supporters if he managed to defeat Kira.

The whole world was at war, but the fight came down to just the two individuals.

L knew that it would not be unreasonable in these circumstances, no matter what his feeling of duty to Near, to give Light the name, to have him write it in the Notebook. However, the last thing they would need in the long run when trying to create Kira’s new world would be a martyr for the cause of those who would oppose him, and besides, without Near the riots may die away.

That should be a good thing, but there were hundreds more governments around the world that could oppose Kira than any few that would have fallen so far.

Could he really allow that? Could he allow Near to destroy more of the world, just so that when they defeated him Kira’s power over the world was guaranteed?

All these thoughts went through his mind in the time it took him to pull on a pair of jeans and a top and go to the living room.

Ryuk was curled around Mello, still holding the Notebook and allowing the boy to use his bony knees to rest on when he wrote, but the boy wasn’t writing. Didn’t have much to write since the images on the screen were of the burning buildings and not those burning them.

“Overnight some government began to declare which side they stood in this conflict; with Kira or against him,” Mello told L. The pair sat in silence for a long time, watching the news and the various buildings that were alight, or burned out already. China, Thailand, Australia, Sumatra. Japan, too, though not the central government buildings, not in these images at least.

“Which ones are burning?”

“All of them, all the ones that made an announcement for or against, and it’s not just the buildings. The officials, no matter where they are, are being rounded up by the people,” Mello explained.

“Contact Takada,” L suggested. “Alter the broadcast for this morning. Get her to tell the Kira supporting governments to centralise in their country’s largest and best security equipped building, and to announce which it is when they make their declarations.”

“Won’t that just have them burning?”

“No,” L took the Notebook from him, flicking through the pages. Mello had written some names, but not many. Evidently, he was still conflicted. L handed it back. “We need them gathered to be able to protect them.”

“But the facial recognition software is too slow for the mobs that are doing this,” Mello reminded him. “We can’t guarantee their safety.”

“We will,” L assured him. “There is a way, I’m sure of it.”

“You have a plan?” Light’s voice from the doorway.

“I do,” L promised. “And I will tell you, a _fter_ breakfast.”

Light laughed, rolling his eyes but going to the kitchen and donning his pale pink apron which, even in the chaos of having to leave Florida in such a hurry, L had still remembered to pack. “Go have your shower. I think Ryuk’s eaten all the apples, but I can manage some chocolate cherry muffins before Kit gets up.”

* * *

 

“How shall we deal with Beyond Birthday?”

L had explained to them about the call to the prison, leaving out the reason behind it, once they were all gathered around a plate of still warm muffins, the Notebook open in the centre of the table in case the facial recognition software would ping up a name whilst they were eating.

L had been thinking about this whilst he had waited for the muffins to finish baking and had come to some conclusions of his own.

“No prison can hold him, and I gave him too many chances at life,” he reasoned. “It would be best just to kill him.”

Light considered him, weighed his words. L tried to look impassive, tried to make it look like he wouldn’t still be a little upset about the death of Beyond, no matter what he had done. Beyond was still a Wammy’s orphan, which was the closest thing he had to a family. It would still be hard on him.

“Would you do it L?” Light wondered eventually, taking the Notebook from the table and writing a name that the software had provided for a riot ringleader in Australia. “If I gave you the Notebook and asked you to write his name, would you do it?”

It was one thing to acknowledge that Beyond should die. That was difficult, but to do it himself… Then again, perhaps this was the way he could prove his worth to Kira. He held out his hands for the Notebook. “I would.”

Light looked at the book, at L’s outstretched hands, and sighed.

“We can’t.”

L frowned, dropping his hands.

“Why not? Surely we should?” Mello thought aloud, trying to follow Light’s logic. L himself had already considered several reasons why the death of Beyond might not be the right choice but leaving such an unpredictable man alive seemed to increase the threat against them. Near, L could predict. Beyond…

“We can’t, because it’s what Near will be expecting us to do,” Light suggested. “He needed Beyond to kill to start this uprising, but now that it’s going he can keep it running with or without Beyond. He will expect us to kill Beyond when we know that he is free, even if you tried to protect him I have a full name for him.”

“Beyond Birthday?”

“Is that not the name he has chosen?” Light questioned. “It is the name he was tried under. I read the files. The court protested, but there was no name on his birth certificate and it is the one he has chosen.”

“He had another title, before then,” L admitted. “Not a name as such, but what he was known at in Wammy’s. Backup.”

“Ryuk,” Light looked to the Shinigami. “Is it within the rules to tell me, yes or no, whether his name is Beyond Birthday?”

“It is, so long as you already know it I guess,” the Shinigami spoke after a few moments consideration. “And that is his name.”

“So, we _can_ kill him. That is within our ability,” Light looked back to L. “We can do so if we have to. But Near’s plans will not include Beyond Birthday if he expects we can kill him. That means that having Beyond around is a loose end for him. I doubt Beyond is the easiest person to work with.”

L considered Light’s view and saw the logical sense behind it. Beyond was not a good person, not a kind person. In the orphanage he had always stood apart from the others, never really cruel when he was there, not directly. But he was manipulative and when he had decided he wanted to he had ensnared one of the others, the child who was being prepared to take over from L, and perhaps encouraged him to his death. Working with Near, Beyond would only be a liability to the boy.

If Near was counting on the idea that Beyond would not survive this initial phase of his plans, they were more likely to go awry with Beyond around. With an ally like Beyond, no one would need enemies.

“Was killing Beyond the plan you were talking about before?” Light checked with L, setting the Notebook back in the centre of the table. L paused before answering.

“It wasn’t,” he admitted after a while. “But… I’m not sure it will work. Would you trust me to try it if I promise you that if it doesn’t work it won’t do any harm, and you will never even have to hear about it?”

Light regarded him suspiciously.

“Will I disapprove of it so much?” he questioned.

“No,” L promised. “Only, if it works I would like it to be a happy surprise, and if it doesn’t I wouldn’t want you to be disappointed.”

“…alright,” Light agreed. “I’ll trust you, L.”

L nodded, selecting his fourth and fifth muffin of the morning. This should work, had to work. With this he would be able to help Kira and prove his worth.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> L takes a big risk in the interest of both making himself useful to Kira and seeking to extend the short lifespan that Ryuk has warned them of. He also utilises friends in high places.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We haven't had the opportunity for anything a bit cracky for a while as the story has taking a serious/murdery turn, so the latter part of this chapter takes the opportunity to be a bit. Since it's an important birthday today and all, 92...

“I know you’re watching.”

L was in their bedroom whilst all of the others were in the living room, watching Kira’s announcement on the news via the charismatic and beautiful journalist Takada. His retreat had not gone unnoticed but Kira had allowed it without question.

“You must be worried about what will happen,” L spoke to the empty room. “About how she will fare in all of this. Has her lifespan also shortened?”

Still nothing, but L was confident that there was someone listening.

“If you try to help her directly it would be suicide,” he reminded. “Do you still have the second Death Note?”

A rustle of wings, and L turned to see a familiar skeletal figure with an eyepatch.

“I cannot stay long, L Lawliet,” the Shinigami told him. “Many more eyes from the Shinigami realm are watching the human world now than ever before. I cannot be seen to be helping you, not now that you have given up ownership of the Death Note.”

“That’s what I need to speak with you about,” L told her. “But first, can I ask you about the rules if I don’t own a Notebook?”

“You can ask,” Rem allowed. “I do not have to answer.”

“But you will, because it is entirely possible it will help Kit,” L reminded her.

“Then ask your questions.”

“With the Death Note, it is possible to extend your own lifespan, and those of others?”

“It is,” Rem agreed. “Not from illness, of course, but if your death would be caused by another’s hand and you killed that individual your lifespan would be extended.”

“The eyes,” L went straight to the point. “They are traded for half a person’s existing lifespan?”

“This is also true.”

“And if the person were then to extend their lifespan, would that lifespan be halved and the time taken, or would it remain at the original number?”

“If, for example, when the deal is made the lifespan lost is _two days_ , it will remain as _two days_ whether the person extends their life or not,” Rem explained, making a point of enunciating the words ‘two days’ on both occasions. L almost missed it the first time, but the second time he realised exactly what she was telling him. “So the person would only lose two days from their extended life span as well.”

Two days. Four days, that was all they had if he didn’t make this deal? Even with all that Kira was doing? He supposed they couldn’t know, since it could change at any time with Light’s use of the Notebook, but their chances would be greatly improved if he did this.

“Do all of us have the same lifespan just now?” L checked.

“Light’s is a little longer,” Rem allowed. “I cannot give you numbers, Lawliet.”

Ah, plausible deniability in case Shinigami were watching her from back home. He was very grateful for the risk she had taken, telling him as much as she had. He hoped the other Shinigami watching were too stupid to catch on.

“Do you still have a second Notebook?”

“I do,” Rem drew it out from the pouch she kept her own Note in. Her clawed fingers tapped on the cover. “I suppose you will ask for it?”

“It would help me to save Kit,” L negotiated. “I presume her lifespan is the same as mine?”

“Yes,” Rem agreed.

“Then it is likely that if I can save the rest of us, I can save Kit too,” L suggested. “I will do everything in my power to save Kit, but I will need that Notebook.”

Rem’s lips pulled into a thin line.

“If I give you this Notebook, once this crisis of yours is over you must return it to me and allow me to return to the Shinigami realm,” Rem demanded.

“Once Near and Beyond are defeated and Kira is in power,” L specified.

“Deal.”

The Shinigami dropped the Notebook to the floor, L waiting for it to land before he collected it, feeling the rush and the pull from the book.

“I would like to make the eye deal, Rem,” he told her definitely, and the Shinigami nodded, reaching out a skeletal hand to cover L’s eyes. When she removed it there was nothing different about what he could see until he noticed a red blur over Rem’s head becoming clearer by the moment. It took a long time to focus, but eventually he could see her name.

He looked to his phone, immediately finding a picture of Watari in his contacts list and spying a name as well as his lifespan although the numbers made absolutely no sense to him.

That was fine. He would work it out in time, and it was the names that they really needed anyway.

“Has my making that deal affected the other’s lifespans at all?” L questioned.

“I will tell you when I see them,” Rem agreed. “I will see them, though? You don’t expect me to hide from Kit now that I’m here?”

“Of course not,” L smiled. “You have my express permission to follow her wherever she goes if you like.”

“Thank you, L Lawliet,” Rem breathed a sigh of relief. “I will keep her safe, even if you cannot.”

“Don’t do anything rash,” L requested of her, though with the Notebook back in his hands he thought that his thoughts must have turned darker; he was already beginning to wonder if there was a way he could make sure Rem died for Kit, so that there would be a way to keep the Notebook he was now holding and possibly acquire Rem’s Notebook for Mello.

This was why he had given up the Notebook in the first place. If he was going to make the choice to do the wrong thing he would far rather be sure that it was his choice. If he was going to kill, he would have it be in full understanding of what he was doing and why.

“Rem?” L considered the bracelets at his wrists. “Would you stay here just for a short time whilst I explain to the others?”

“If I must,” the Shinigami went to the bed and if it were possible for a skeleton to sit down elegantly, she managed it, back straight and ankles crossing to one side beneath her rather than dangling. Her hands covered one another in her lap. L found himself wondering about Rem, about Shinigami in general. There was something about the way she had carried herself in that moment that was just so very… human. Not made for the unnaturally long limbs of her tall skeleton frame.

“Rem, do Shinigami come from humans?” he questioned. She narrowed her eye.

“I cannot say,” she spoke sharply. L nodded.

“You cannot say because it is true,” he presumed, and her expression gave away that it was the case. “Rem, how long have you been a Shinigami?”

“That is none of your business,” she snapped.

“I think you’ve been a Shinigami for a very long time,” L reasoned. “You don’t have many human habits, not like Ryuk.”

“Perhaps I am just a better Shinigami,” Rem preened.

“No, I am quite sure,” L made another conclusion. “You were born to a noble family then, because that long ago no one would have been bothered to teach you to sit like that if you were poor.”

“I could write your name, Lawliet, if you don’t stop this soon,” she threatened. He suspected the threat wouldn't be completed, but his thoughts had moved on anyway.

“Ryuk must have been very young when he was human and became a Shinigami,” he reasoned. “The way he acts, the way he plays with Mello… does it depend on the age that you die as a human?”

“I will not answer your questions,” Rem growled the warning. “Drop the topic, now.”

“Alright,” L agreed reluctantly, though his thoughts continued. What would determine whether a human became a Shinigami when they died? There could not be a new Shinigami every time a Shinigami took a life with their Notebook, otherwise they would notice far more dying of heart attacks, an exponential growth pattern. Although it was the most common cause of death the number was not growing exponentially. Could it be that the Shinigami were created from those who had used a Death Note in their life? It would be a logical way to choose, because if someone had a Death Note and didn’t use it they wouldn’t last long as a Shinigami, but then for Ryuk to have been around Mello’s age when he died…

Or could the Shinigami be made the moment the human got the Death Note? At least, could their mind and memories be kept at that stage?

This was a frightening thought for L, who recalled his attitude to Kira when he first used the Notebook and Light was in his cell. When Light had first used the Notebook he had been more immature. Before he was Kira he had been a high school student, a high achiever, but not the same man L knew now. He found himself cruelly hoping that Ryuk had died young.

“Stay here,” he demanded, returning to his earlier purpose.

“I intend to,” Rem looked around the room for something to do, finding nothing. “Don’t be too long.”

“Kit will be happy to see you too,” L smiled knowingly.

Before he went through to the room he tucked the Notebook into his jeans and hid it with his shirt, unclipping the bracelets from his wrists and setting them down carefully on his bedside table. Just because he was wanting to make Kira happy with this didn’t mean he couldn’t have a little fun with it first.

He went through to the sitting room where the others were all in front of the television, the kitsune sat squarely in the middle of the coffee table regarding them all with judging eyes, its tails flicking restlessly. Ryuk had a page of Light’s Death Note in his hand, holding it for Mello if he were to need it, but Light was doing the name writing at this point, waiting for the relatively slow facial recognition. L settled himself at Kira’s side, reading names and numbers on the screen.

“Takada made her announcement?” he checked, drawing attention to himself as he collected his laptop and deactivated the face recognition. Soon they wouldn’t be using it anyway.

“She did,” Light agreed. “Mello tells me your plan involved something that would make her suggestions worthwhile?”

“It does,” L agreed, setting down the laptop. His hands lingered, the position drawing his sleeves back enough to allow the observant Light to notice that his bracelets were not in place.

“What are you doing?” he questioned, catching L’s arm and wrapping a hand around the bare wrist, checking the ring was still in place. “This is risky… or do the papers need changing?”

“That won’t be necessary,” L shook Light’s grasp from his arm, taking the chance to remove the ring quickly and toss it on to the table. Light jolted forward, managing to catch it, gawping at L.

“What the hell?”

L moved, settling at Light’s feet instead of the arm of his chair.

“L, what on earth did you hope to achieve…”

L read names from the screen, pulling the Death Note he had just acquired from the waist band of his jeans and starting to write, name after name as he looked down the screen.

“L…” Mello started at the second book, and the red eyes. “What did you do?”

“Solved the names problem,” he smiled innocently, looking round at Kira. “You told me to make myself useful.”

Kira looked vaguely nauseated. “By giving up half your lifespan?”

“There are… loopholes,” L explained. “Besides which it was necessary.”

“Still…”

“It might ensure your victory,” L had thought that Light would be happy, even before he had learned about their very short possible life spans. To see him worrying, upset that L had done this… he was both disappointed not to be getting some sort of praise for his loyalty, and pleased that Light valued him enough to not want to trade away any of his days.

Light stared at him, at the red eyes gleaming back – too similar to Beyond’s, though the face was not burned as his was.

“The British Parliament is meeting this morning to vote on which side they should stand,” Mello interrupted their staring. L sighed.

“Kit, could I borrow your mobile phone?” L held out his hand for the object before she could answer. “The number will need to be unfamiliar.”

“Who are you going to call?” Kit did hand over her phone but she did so reluctantly, looking wary.

“An old friend,” L dialled the number, one of a very few he knew by heart. “I’ve solved a few cases for her on a private basis.”

“Who?” Light wondered curiously.

“L,” the detective told whoever had answered on the other end of the phone line. “Yes, I’m alive.”

“Your majesty,” Mello prompted, prodding L with his foot.

“… your majesty,” L added reluctantly, scowling at the boy. Kit gasped and Koinu rushed across the table, pouncing on L’s face and taking the phone to the table between his teeth, prodding the loud speaker button with his paw.

“… keep the lives of the people as one’s first priority,” a familiar female voice spoke. “My advisors believe you are working alongside this Kira?”

“Speaking,” Light decided to take advantage of the situation. On the other end of the phone there was a gasp, and then silence. L hoped that Kira would not simply try to order around the Queen of the United Kingdom, keen to maintain the traditions of the land in which he was raised and sure that the British people would never take to Kira if he were to kill their monarchy for being disobedient. This was definitely not a call in which Kira’s God complex was welcome. “And may I say, ma’am, it is an honour.”

L breathed a sigh of relief, resting his cheek on Light’s knee with a smile as he could relax.

“Kira, one would ask what your interests are in my country?” there was a sharpness to the Queen’s voice that showed her regal command.

“With all due respect, ma’am, this fight is far larger than this one country,” Light suggested. “This is world war on a grand scale.”

“One is aware.”

“Then you must understand that once I know on which side your lands stand in this fight, I must act accordingly ma’am,” he was warning, but still not commanding, and L hoped it would last. “In any war there will be casualties, ma’am, but I have no interest in killing those who are innocent. If your country stands with us I will ensure that you and those who stand in our favour among your people are protected.”

“What you have is a weapon of mass destruction,” the Queen told him. “One disapproves of such things.”

“The problem with weapons of mass destruction, ma’am, are the innocents who die when it is used,” Light argued. “My pen, no matter how many have to fall to it, is more precise than even a knife.”

“And if one should win the war, what does one intend for the countries who sided with Kira?”

“Peace,” Light suggested. “Countries each have their own customs, their own traditions. I would not try to take these from you, ma’am. I only seek to make the world better, and I have the power to do so.”

“By killing those who break the rules?” the Queen disapproved. “One abolished the death penalty in Britain many years ago, Sir.”

“Respectfully, ma’am, look where that had brought the world,” he argued. “Rotting, and even the British stiff upper lip was starting to wobble, has it not?”

Too much, too harsh, L flinched. The Queen held her silence for a long while and L could imagine the expression on her face as she seethed.

“Lizzy, if Near wins he will burn your monarchy and your governments to the ground whether you side for or against him,” L stepped in. “Under Kira’s command Britain would largely maintain its autonomy. Would this not be better?”

“Detective,” a heavy, long suffering sigh. “One has trusted your judgement in the past. This is truly the choice you would make?”

“It is the choice I have made,” L assured. “Perhaps if the monarchy speak, the public will listen?”

“… One shall make the announcement presently.”

“Thank you Lizzy, you won’t regret it,” L breathed a sigh of relief, reaching out to hang up the phone. Koinu collected it and took it back to an astonished Kit.

“That was the Queen,” Kit still stared at the phone between Koinu’s teeth.

“Yes,” L grinned. “Buckingham palace has the best Victoria sponge I’ve ever tasted.”

“You’ve met her?” Kit’s stare strayed to L. “You’ve met the Queen?”

“She throws good garden parties.”

“And you call her… Lizzy?”

“She called me L.” L huffed. Well, he would have called her by her title, but she had refused to call him by his alias at one of the garden parties. He had used her given name as revenge, but to his surprise she had only teased him about it. The Queen had a surprisingly good sense of humour and mischief. The name had stuck, and he hadn’t even thought about calling her anything else.

“What sort of cases would she bring you in on?” Light wondered, running fingers through L’s messy hair, trying to neaten it. “Doesn’t she have a police force, an army and a secret service?”

“Personal cases,” L suggested. “The Royal Family don’t always like to air their dirty laundry to the entire country.”

“Well, I suppose that’s one way to win a country,” Light considered. “Personal friendships made through teasing over cake.”

“I’m starting to think that’s L’s go to move,” Mello joked.

“It works,” L said seriously.

“How long before she would make the announcement?” Light wondered. “And what channel should I turn to?”

“One, of course,” L chuckled. “I’ll give Watari a call. We need more computer screens for the surveillance cameras before she announces anything.”

The more views they would have to look for anyone trying to do harm the better, though it was helpful that most of the crowds would surely be around downing street and the parliament buildings rather than the palace. L was sure they could get enough footage of those too, enough for him to spot names when he needed to.

“Light?” L glanced up once he had made the phone call. “This might take a while… I don’t suppose you’ve had the chance to make any cakes?”

Light laughed, setting his own Notebook down on the coffee table. “Will some quick chocolate brownies do?”

“They would help,” L agreed, opening his own Notebook to the next blank page and beginning to write ways of death rather than names, preparing. Ones for would be assassins _turns gun on themselves and shoots themselves in the head without harming anyone else_ , bombers _has a change of heart, sabotages the bomb and then dies, accidental death_ and a few more elaborate instructions, ways that would convince anyone who thought it was a good idea to also attack to turn tail and run.

“Oh, Kit,” he looked up from the book as he remembered. “Rem is waiting for you in our bedroom. She seems to have missed you terribly.”

Kit smiled, scooping up Koinu, seeming relieved to be able to leave them to their plans.


	14. Dacnomania

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unleashed Kira maybe takes things just a little too far. Near realises that he has underestimated how far L will go for Light. Plans are adjusted.

“It’s the USA next,” L told Kira over a huge plate of chocolate brownies. Light had prepared four batches worth, each batch claiming to serve twenty portions, and they had already eaten through two full batches. “The president is going to make his announcement shortly.”

Watari had arrived with the extra computers and monitors quickly after L had phoned him and had spent a little time berating the detective for putting Her Majesty at risk. The scolding would certainly have gone on longer if it hadn’t been for Mello suggesting that Watari must fancy the Queen to be making such a fuss. It must have been a touchy subject somehow because Watari had redirected all of his anger against Mello at that point.

“Their president is still an idiot,” Light huffed, his own pen at the ready. “Has Takada filmed her broadcasts?”

“One for yes and one for no,” Mello confirmed. “Matt has the US television networks hacked and ready to go, as well as the screens around where the announcement will be made.”

So far Britain had been the easiest country to protect from the rioters. L’s idea to get the Queen to announce that they were to stand with Kira rather than the politicians, who had far less support from the general population, had helped to discourage the majority of the protests and the prompt death of the few that would have attacked her had seemingly discouraged any others. Light thought there was something odd about how few did protest the decision, but they had bigger distractions quickly as France had declared against Kira and he had spent the next short while running through a sequence of command until the one who stood as French president surrendered to Kira. L was then occupied trying to protect that turncoat, and they had forgotten about Britain.

“He isn’t going to side with Kira,” Light was certain of it even as the president stepped out on to the stage, looking determined but very afraid.

“No,” L agreed, watching as the president squared his shoulders at the podium.

“At least he won’t be any great loss to the world,” Kit allowed. She and Rem were sat side by side on the sofa, a very grumpy looking fox sat rigidly in the small space between them.

“Would you kill him for me?” Light asked L, who blinked up from where he was sat at his feet and nodded, beginning to write even though the president hadn’t spoken yet.

“When are we getting more apples?” Ryuk complained, ignorant of the rest of the team since Watari’s last supply run had been taken up entirely by the computer monitors and his apples had been left out. He wasn’t quite at the point of doing handstands yet, but his impatience was growing regardless of the entertainment created by this war.

“Soon,” Mello promised. “Why don’t you try one of these brownies?”

“That’s your addiction,” Ryuk complained, picking up one of the brownies from the plate Mello had offered him and holding it to the boy’s lips for him to eat. From the opposite sofa Rem huffed disapprovingly.

“Why does this feel like the calm before the storm?” Kit glanced down at Koinu, who nuzzled in to the palm of her hand, rough tongue flicking out to lick her fingers.

“When America is on our side, we have over half the world’s population declared for Kira,” Light reminded her. “This is going to be important.”

“But… Near’s losing,” she pointed out. “Why isn’t he doing anything?”

“I don’t know, maybe he didn’t plan for L siding with me, maybe he was counting on us fighting one another and he’s having to change his plans,” Light suggested.

“We already know he’s having to operate with Beyond still alive, which won’t be helping,” L reminded.

“Or there is another plan afoot, but we can’t know it yet,” Light shrugged. “First this, then we focus on Near. Although… has Matt had any success breaking through the Japanese headquarters security?”

“None yet, but he was still working on it last I called,” Mello supplied.

On the screen the President of the United States had taken to the podium and the crowd had fallen silent. L waited, poised with pen over paper.

“People of the United States of America, the time has come for us to choose a side,” the president spoke. “As a people we have stood for liberty, for equality and for justice. In the words of one of our great states, the state of Iowa, our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain. Though I give my life, the United States will not bow before Kira’s Judgement.”

“He could be a martyr,” Mello reminded them all warily.

“In the grand scheme of things, it won’t matter,” Light suggested. “Listen to them.”

It was hard not to listen to the crowd. The roar of noise that the speakers were detecting was not a cheer, it was booing and hissing and shouts of dissent, a people who had elected a leader who had made false promises to improve the lives of his people now betrayed by those who had once believed in him. They turned to Kira now.

“L?” Light prompted, and L wrote a name, biting the end of his pen as he watched his writing take effect.

Kira was not cruel, would not torture those he killed, but there was nothing to say he couldn’t make a spectacle of them. This was a big one, he could not be seen to be cruel, but equally this had to make a statement. It couldn’t just be a heart attack. L had balanced this carefully. The President of the United States had long denied gun controls, so it was most fitting that a gun be used of course. The Death Note did not allow control of someone who would not die, so L could not have him assassinated. He could only create a freak accident, one of the security guards dropping their machine gun and a few bullets firing, striking the President in the chest behind the podium. He slumped forwards, his life fading almost immediately.

“Takada’s message,” Light prompted, and Mello set it loose. On their screens they were still able to see the crowd and what was happening, but on all other screens across the united states her message began to play, speaking of Kira, explaining in a concise way the war that Near had begun but Kira would end, offering safety and security and a better world.

Takada was convincing, and the crowd on screen were already primed for such an announcement. Most of them were cheering.

“Time to make a point,” Light prompted, and Mello flicked to the next part of the message; a K, singularly written in the same gothic font that L used for his own initial, and Light’s own voice.

“Kneel and receive Kira’s blessing.”

“Fetish,” L hadn’t known that Light was planning this, laughing as Light tugged on his hair gently, warning.

“Watch,” he sat forward eagerly as the crowd began to fall to their knees.

“How many will stay standing?” Kit asked warily. “Will you kill them?”

“Yes.” Light answered plainly, watching as more hesitant members of the crowd began to obey.

“But… they’re innocents,” she argued. “How will that convince people to support Kira?”

“It is better to rule by love than by fear,” Mello suggested.

“True,” Light agreed. “But we don’t have time for that. For now, it will have to be both.”

Even L, poised as he was to write the names for those that did not kneel, flinched a little at that. Koinu seemed to have lost his patience entirely, a surge of flames igniting the back of Light’s chair. He threw himself out of it, Ryuk delighting in snatching the fire extinguisher and dousing the flames, making far more mess than strictly necessary.

“Are we going to have a problem?” Light demanded, glaring at the fox who stood in Kit’s lap, its hackles raised.

“Koinu, stop,” Kit caught his collar, but the fox turned its head and snapped at her fingers. “Koinu!”

“L,” Light didn’t look away from the fox. “Kill those that don’t kneel. One by one, give the others chance to kneel as each one falls.”

L was hesitant, curling in on himself as he looked up at Kira and saw something vicious and perhaps new there. Kira figured himself a God, but at that moment he looked like something very much darker.

“Do it.”

L closed his eyes, thoughts racing just for a moment more.

He had made his choice. His eyes opened, taking in the names of those who still stood, and he began to write.

The fox’s growl was suddenly strangled as it yelped, scrambling backwards as the metal bands around its legs activated, an electric shock. It spun to Kit, looking betrayed.

“That wasn’t me,” she promised, gawping at Light. Behind him Mello was holding a controller.

“We can’t fight one another,” he reminded them. “If we do Near will win, and no matter how bad this gets we have to beat Near.”

“How can he be worse than this?” Kit asked, staring as the first of the standing crowd fell dead, clutching his chest. “These are war crimes, and Near hasn’t done anything…”

“He started this by having a bunch of people brutally murdered,” Mello reminded. “He isn’t exactly innocent either.”

“What you’re doing is wrong,” she told him firmly. “All of you, you’re wrong.”

“Kit…”

“No,” she hugged Koinu close. “You say you’re creating a better world, but all I can see is death.”

On the screen only a very few remained standing, the rest of those who had resisted falling to their knees as a second man died.

“This is the last of it,” L told her quietly as he wrote one more name and the last of the hold outs knelt too. “But if you prefer, we can leave here. Tonight.”

“No,” she frowned at him. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re staying here, where Koinu can keep an eye on you.”

“Kit,” Light held the eye of the fox, whose three tails lashed side to side angrily, lips curled back from needle teeth. “I’m not sure whether the Notebook would work on a kitsune, but it would work on you.”

“Kira…” L caught his hand, tugging to try to get his attention. “They are our friends…”

“She is threatening us,” Light growled. “Who the hell does she think she is?”

“Light, stop this,” L pleaded. “This isn’t necessary… this isn’t you.”

Light’s eyes dropped to focus on L, a cruel smile.

“This is me, L,” he denied. “This is Kira.”

“Then let us be Kira’s conscience?” L pleaded. “You’re going too far.”

“That is for me to decide.”

“No,” L shook his head. “If Kira wants the world, it can be taken with blood and fear. But you will not keep it that way, and I know you, Light. You would not want to do things this way, not really. You would regret it.”

“It’s not up to you to tell me how I would feel.”

“How would you feel if I were to leave?” L demanded, questioning how it had come to this, how Kira had gone so far so quickly. It was exactly as he had feared; Kira, once let loose without direct opposition, without reason for restraint, was losing control.

His question hit Light hard, his eyes softening first before much of the tension dropped away and he sat, staring at L.

“Would you?” he asked softly.

“I will help Kira to create a new world,” L promised. “But not like this. Not by alienating all those who care about you, not by forgetting your humanity Light.”

Light studied him intently, no doubt seeing his worry. All of them waited with bated breath for his reply.

“I’m sorry,” he agreed after a long time. He looked to the crowd on the television screen still kneeling, not knowing when they could stand. “I didn’t mean to go so far.”

“I know,” L assured him, climbing in to his lap and wrapping long arms around his shoulders, a comforting embrace. “What is it they say about power?”

“It corrupts,” Light suggested with a sigh. “I suppose…”

“And you really do seem to have a fetish for people kneeling,” L reminded. “Maybe we should keep that one to the bedroom for now?”

“La la la la la!” Mello covered his ears, trying to block out the bedroom talk. “Can you stop?”

Light did stop L, pushing him away a little to look to Kit and Koinu.

“I’m sorry,” he did look apologetic, too. “Thank you for intervening. I… I did need that.”

“Don’t threaten me ever again,” Kit warned him. “Or I will take one of Mello’s guns and shoot you.”

“And Koinu,” he looked to the fox. “You deserve a reward I think.”

The fox sat in Kit’s lap, its head nodding in a very human way. Its eyes were still narrowed, distrust evident.

“L, he’ll probably be happier if you do it than me,” Light suggested. “Could you release the cuffs?”

L had to retrieve the key to unlock the tiny mechanisms in the metal bands around the fox’s legs, and Koinu had to wait for Kit to remove the collar before transforming back into his human form.

“Kira,” his expression hadn’t changed at all for his transformation, still looking suspiciously to Light. Somehow, he looked less threatening as a human than a fox, his blonde mop of hair and blue eyes giving him a false innocence. “I can still set you on fire like this, you know.”

“I do,” Light nodded. “But maybe this way you can speak first and give me a chance to rethink before you do?”

“That depends on how urgently you need to burn,” he threatened. “But… I suppose I can try to give you a chance.”

“Thank you.”

* * *

 

“How did they do that?” Beyond questioned as he watched the broadcast from America where figures in the crowd had begun to drop dead suddenly. His long fingers gripped tightly to Near’s shoulder, leaving bruises.

“Facial recognition would be too slow,” Near agreed, trying to shift a little because whilst Beyond’s grip was tight enough to be painful in any case he seemed to have found a spot where a nerve ran over bone, the pain sharp and electric.

“One of them must have the eyes,” Beyond concluded, giggling. Near had to look away quickly as Beyond tried to poke him in one of his.

“One of them?”

“Kira would not shorten his life,” Beyond reasoned. He valued himself too much, the egotistical prick.

“But L got rid of his Notebook, Mello said…” Near flinched as Beyond shut him up by moving that hand from his shoulder to around his neck, gripping tightly for a few seconds and leaving red marks that would bruise but releasing him before he could need to gasp for breath.

“Could he have got it back?”

“… yes, if he…” he hesitated, lines of causality connecting in his mind. He snatched up the computer, closing down the America footage.

“What?” Beyond demanded, no liking to be left out.

“I know where they are,” Near grinned, typing quickly on the message boards as another computer was still working to trace back the source location of where the K screen was broadcast from. “We can move forwards…”

“Did you plan for this?” Beyond was grinning.

“… not specifically,” Near was forced to admit. Indeed, most of his original plans were out of the question now, but he could work with this. “It was always a chance, but the chance was so small….”

Beyond laughed at him.

“Always plan for every option, no matter how unlikely,” he advised. “For example, what is stopping them now from just writing our names?”

“… nothing,” Near winced. If L had gone so far as to get the Notebook back, to get the eyes… “We have to strike quickly.”

“You play whatever silly game you like,” Beyond suggested, going to the door and pulling on his coat. He checked the pockets, found a very small pistol, fired it so that it struck Near’s as yet uninjured leg. The bullet didn’t have all that much force from such a small weapon, only digging in a couple of inches. Near’s yelp made it worth it. “Don’t wait up.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Find us some insurance,” Beyond giggled.

* * *

 

“We should just kill Near and have done with it,” Light suggested to L when they had all eaten their evening meal and retired to their beds. L had crouched at the end of their bed, unsure whether he would be welcome to snuggle in like the last night and enjoying the view of Light laid out naked on top of the covers.

“You are in a position where that… would be beneficial,” L agreed reluctantly.

“But you would still ask me not to?”

“I think if you were to kill him at this point Mello would leave and devote the rest of his life to trying to stop us,” L advised. “If Mello opposed you, Ryuk…”

Of course, L had been thinking of what arguments he could make to convince Light not to just kill Near, but this was his last resort though he was sure it would be effective. Light would not risk alienating Ryuk, not when the Shinigami could write his name in his own Notebook at any time. Light certainly liked to think of himself as invincible, as a God, but he was still mortal and fallible.

“We will have to do something to Near eventually that Mello won’t like,” Light pointed out.

“Imprisoning him would be easier than holding Beyond, he doesn’t have anything like the same people skills,” L reasoned. “We just have to catch him first.”

“And that is where the challenge arises,” Light sighed. “It was never like this when I was trying to prevent you catching me.”

L frowned. “What do you mean?”

“When Kira was being pursued by the great detective L,” Light reminisced, “I was never bored, never impatient. You aggravated me and it was a challenge, but if it hadn’t been for Misa I think we’d have spent a very long time in that stalemate.”

“You think Near will be easy to beat?”

“Yes,” Light shrugged. “He’s too… rigid in his thinking. With you, if plan A didn’t work I’m pretty sure you already had a plan B through Z prepared. With Near, he has plan A and if plan A doesn’t work, I’m pretty sure he just looks for a way to cheat.”

“He does,” L confirmed.

“You see, that just irritates me,” Light admitted. “If you can’t even play the game, what’s the point?”

“Complete power over the whole world?” L reminded, but Light snorted.

“He must have realised already that isn’t going to happen, if it looks like he’s going to win we will just write his name… won’t we?” he looked pointedly to L, who had the second recently returned Notebook beside him at the end of the bed.

“Yes,” L agreed. “If it goes that far then yes.”

“Good. Now, are you coming to bed?”

“Yes, Kira,” L beamed, crawling up the bed and being caught by Light’s hands as he moved to lay down, pulling him to straddle his hips.

“I did say you should do all the work this time,” he was reminded as he gladly settled where Light guided him. L found himself grinning mischievously, looking round for anything he could use.

“Hold that thought?” he rushed away, retrieving the belts of their dressing gowns and returning, straddling Light eagerly. “Can I…?”

“The last time I let you tie me up you covered me in frosting,” Light reminded him, eyes narrowing.

“Please?” L forced his sweetest and most innocent smile.

“We said we wouldn’t do that again.”

“I don’t want to punish you,” L promised. He leaned in, whispering in Light’s ear. “Please allow me to prove my worth to Kira?”

Light took a shuddering breath, still hesitant but nodding. “But I swear, L, if you make this weird again…”

As soon as Light agreed L had grabbed his wrists and tied them together in front of his abdomen, turning around to tie his feet, one at either end of the belt and the middle of the belt running through the bottom of the bedframe. Light pulled against them, angling his feet, testing whether he could slip loose. L watched him remove the first foot from the binding by simply angling it down, looking to Light with pleading wide eyes.

“Go ahead,” Light stopped resisting, letting him bind the foot again but assured now of his ability to pull away and escape if he felt the need. L was almost regretful that Kira should be so concerned and scolded himself for being deliberately belligerent before, though he was more determined now than he had been then that Light should not be punished for his actions as Kira. In a world that was burning, Kira would be the one who brought it out of its ashes.

L moved from the bed, regretting it instantly when Kira all but snarled at him and pulled one of his feet from the binding again, unwilling to be denied, but L had no intention of leaving him. Not this time. He knelt at the base of the bed, catching the errant foot and bringing it back to the edge, kissing its base.

Light fell still, and L smiled as he kissed again, massaging the arch. Light always managed to hold so much tension there, and L knew that Kira enjoyed when he would touch his feet. It was subservient, perhaps even symbolic, a gesture of worship…

L was overthinking again, and he scolded himself for it. This wasn’t about profiling Kira, nor learning more about him. They would have all the time in the world for that.

Or none at all, since the next day would be day two, and he had exchanged half his remaining lifespan for the eyes – two days could be all they had. Two days, but Rem did not specify by nights. This might just be their last, if L failed to change their impending deaths.

L was patient, waiting until Light was entirely relaxed before he finally let his feet be and moved back on to the bed, delighted to see Light’s cock hard and ready for him.

He hesitated, torn. This could be their last night, but Light didn’t know that. He wanted this moment to last, wanted to make the most of this night, but if he lingered too long Light would absolutely believe he was seeking only to tease again.

“L?” Kira’s eyes were narrowed, suspicious again, and L couldn’t hold back a little whimper as he was torn with indecision. “Don’t you dare…”

“I won’t,” L heard himself promising. How could he excuse his hesitation? “Do you know how handsome you look?”

“Yes.”

L laughed, biting a finger tip as he made a show of looking Kira over and wondering if Light would approve of a little game, enjoy it as he did.

“Light Yagami,” he tried to sound like he was unaffected by the stunning and inviting sight before him, tried to keep his voice measured as he would during a case. He, like Light, was a rather good actor when he wanted to be. “You claimed to have nothing to hide?”

Kira was sharp as ever, catching on quickly.

“Ryuzaki, I told you, I’m not Kira,” his facial expression flashed through delight and amusement before it became blank, irritated – his mask, L reminded himself as the performance was convincing.

“I’d say…” L made a point of inspecting him from top to toe. “… forty percent. But perhaps I could be convinced to re-evaluate?”

“And what part of me might you want to evaluate?” Even with his mask up Light smirked.

“Well, there might be one part of you that is honest,” L ran the finger tip he had been biting from the base of Light’s cock to the head and over the slit, licking the salty fluid he gathered there away.

“And with my cock I can convince you that I’m not Kira?”

“Hmm,” L considered, collecting the bottle of cooking oil and slicking his fingers, resolving that Watari would have to get them something better if they survived the next 24 hours. “Shall I tell you my theories for Kira’s cock?”

“Oh, please do,” Light watched as L began to tease himself with a single of his own long fingers.

“Kira would, of course, want to be dominant. He would want to be the one on top, and he would want his partner to be entirely submissive to him,” L described, quickly pressing a second finger inside himself and curling them until he found the perfect spot within. “If… If Kira were fucking L, his enemy, he would want to hold him down and fuck him hard. He would want L to beg him… not beg him to stop. Beg him for more.”

Light was panting just watching him. With his hands bound he could still reach his cock and he had begun to stroke, long and steady strokes that would not make him come but that would sooth his ardour for now, until L was ready. L pressed a third finger inside, eager not to make Kira wait for him.

“If you are Kira…” L continued. “If you are, you will find it impossible to let me have my way with you. You will _have_ to take over, at the end.”

“I might just take over now if you don’t hurry up,” Light threatened.

L bit his lip as he brought his fingers out of himself, holding his breath until Light’s cock filled him in their place.

They had fucked so many times now, and Light still filled him so perfectly that he was quite convinced his body had moulded itself to match the precise shape and size of his cock. He was deliberately careful with his movements, watching Light’s every reaction as he tested the best angles, the perfect way to please him.

But not too much, because he was playing L the detective trying to catch Kira and could not be too eager.

“L,” Kira growled a warning.

“Forty five percent,” L congratulated himself on a game well played as Light’s eyes widened momentarily before the mask recovered.

“So, either I lay back and take it or you increase my Kira percentage?” he complained, though even as his acting remained perfect his hips were rocking up to meet L as he moved.

“Pretty much,” L grinned.

“I hate you.”

“Forty eight percent.”

Light retaliated by grasping L’s cock and using the tight strokes to encourage L to speed up his pace.

“Ah, it’s more like… sixty percent now…” L gasped, trying to hold back.

“Fuck this,” Light grabbed L by the neck, not a strangle hold but using the vulnerable spot to force him to comply as he pushed him backwards until L was laid back on the bed with Light over him and his shoulders hanging off the end of the bed. Light had slipped the binding on his ankles, using the same to tie L’s wrists.

He slammed inside L, the sharp jolt of sensation and just a little pain almost forcing L’s mind to go blank.

“Eighty percent,” L warned, but Light’s mask had altered now and he was laughing, humourless and dark.

“How badly do you want it to be true?” Light demanded.

“Is it true?” L could hardly remember to act, pounded as he was by Kira’s cock. “Will you confess?”

“If I confess, will you come?” he demanded, and L wanted to say yes, yes of course, yes, but he held his tongue. “If I were Kira, wouldn’t I kill you rather than fuck you?”

“Ninety percent.”

Light’s answering grin had L nervous, even though he trusted Light and could easily reason that this was part of the game too. So did the fingers that wrapped tightly around his neck as Light’s thrusts inside him became erratic, his breathing forced to stall.

“It’s like they say in the movies, L,” Light managed, “If I tell you I’ll have to kill you.”

L would have gasped if he could, if Light wasn’t stopping him from breathing. Adrenaline was surging, making everything more intense, but he didn’t try to escape the hold, allowing the sensations to wash over him as his vision became spotted and glazed.

Light leaned in, whispering in his ear. “I am Kira.”

L gasped in air as Light’s fingers released his throat before his world could begin to swim, and that first gasp of air was all he had before he was screaming Kira’s name.


	15. Insurance

They were halfway through eating their breakfast before anyone questioned where Kit and Koinu were, so when Ryuk asked the question the others all realised they had completely overlooked their disappearance.

“Should someone go check on them?” Ryuk wondered.

“I wouldn’t,” Mello warned. “They probably had a late night.”

“He was a fox until yesterday,” Light reminded. “Would she really just jump into bed with him?”

“I know how we can check,” Mello rushed to check on the table, under it and around. He looked up with a mischievous grin. “Yep, it’s gone.”

“What’s gone Akane?”

“Koinu’s collar,” Mello grinned. “Told her he’d like it.”

“That’s… undignified,” Light mused, but L realised that the younger man glanced to his own throat and flushed. He considered the idea for a long moment before resolving that it was perhaps going too far for him, though if Kira commanded it of him…

“Should we get them so they can eat?” Mello looked ready to launch himself up the stairs, but L caught him before he could.

“They might not still be sleeping,” Light reminded the impetuous teenager as he struggled with L’s hold.

L thought Mello may well be right, but there was something else that might complicate things, not to mention distract Mello. “Where’s Rem?”

L was able to release Mello as he stopped struggling. They all looked at one another, wondering.

“Kit and Koinu can both see her can’t they?”

They all agreed that they could.

“I doubt they’d let her stay with them if that was what they were doing,” Light considered.

“Nah, Rem’s outside,” Ryuk shrugged. “Akane spent the night in here so she used the tent.”

“She wanted her own space,” Mello told them, returning to the table.

L had been awake for three hours already, and he thought he deserved the reward Light had been making for him, the carefully crafted chocolate cupcakes, coated with Italian meringue and topped with a strawberry. He had a whole plate full of the delights but had only been able to properly savour one of them before his computer was lit up with a calligraphic letter M.

“Matt!” Mello leaped over the sofa to get to the computer, turning up the volume.

“Mello,” Matt was laughing at the other end. He didn’t bother with a voice filter. “Blown anything up lately?”

“Only deliberately,” Mello was beaming from ear to ear, but Ryuk had not followed at his heels as he usually did. Indeed, L noticed the Shinigami was looking vaguely uncomfortable and had eaten a whole apple in one go rather than savouring it.

“The whole world’s on fire and it’s not your fault?”

“I know, I’ve been confused too.”

“Is L there?”

L, who was halfway through licking the Italian meringue from his second home baked treat, reluctantly set it aside.

“Speaking.”

“I have a hole in the coding preventing you seeing the Japanese tower’s security,” Matt told him swiftly. “I don’t know how long it will last, so if you get all the screens prepared you should be watching when I bust this.”

“Eat your cake,” Light offered him generously. “I’ll sort out the computers.”

“Hello Kira,” Matt greeted. “Mello tells me you bake good brownies?”

“I suppose so,” Light frowned as he activated all of the screens. Of all the things for the third rank to consider his first priority it was brownies?

“I’m something of a brownie maverick myself,” Matt explained. “You’ll have to try one of mine some time.”

“Don’t try one of Matt’s,” L warned, miming smoking. Light raised an eyebrow, judging.

“So we’re okay with murder now but not with a bit of self-medication?” Matt huffed. “Least you could do is legalise it for me in your new world, Kira.”

“You should,” Mello chipped in. “Legalised trade is regulated, less cowboys out there corrupting the product…”

“Admirable effort boys, but this is definitely not the time,” L impatiently interrupted, hopping up onto the sofa with his plate of cakes. “Light has the screens hooked up Matt, time to show off.”

“…alright, but we _will_ continue this talk,” Matt paused, probably to smoke, and then they could hear the sound of fingers hitting keys. “Once I get in I’ll hold this open for as long as I can, but I designed this system and the AI searches for any intrusions. Only reason I can get in now is because someone’s been fiddling with the coding…”

The screens lit up with different camera angles and changed rapidly to exclude empty rooms until all cameras on screen showed rooms where people were.

The first views they got were of a wall of tarot cards, all carefully stacked to create something that looked very much like a fortress, inside which they could see the white clothed figure of Near. His eyes lifted from a computer in front of him and looked straight into a camera facing directly through the doorway of his Tarot card fort. Surrounding him ran a maze of dominos in concentric circles, trapping him within his fort.

“This isn’t right…” Matt’s voice came through, a little distressed. “My hack has been hijacked…”

On screen Near hit a button on the computer in front of him and Matt’s voice was muted. Another button and the faint sounds of Tokyo in the background whispered through the speakers.

“Kira,” Near greeted, emotionless as ever. “L. Mello.”

“You wanted to speak to us?” L spoke, nudging Light to encourage him to keep quiet for the moment. It was evident who had been tampering with Matt’s system. Near had made the flaw in the code specifically so that they would break it. He wanted to speak with them, wanted them to see this now. Why?

“Thought I should say goodbye,” Near smiled - a small, sweet curling of his lips with a glint of mischief in his eyes, looking for all the world like the innocent child he often pretended to be. “Since you won’t last the day.”

“You’re very confident,” L commented indifferently. “And… bleeding.”

Now that their attention was drawn to it, Mello and Light noticed the small but growing spot on Near’s white trousers. The boy glared down at his leg, one hand covering the redness.

“Beyond’s still around then?” Light grinned, sure that he had made the right choice in leaving the mad murderer alive to cause trouble.

“Not for long,” Near was back to indifference. “And small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.”

“What about your life?” Light questioned. “It is mine to take at any moment, _child_.”

“You think so?”

“Light…” Mello’s attention was focused on a different screen. “You should see this.”

“Ah, you’ve spotted her,” Near flicked a domino in front of him, a stream of them running in concentric circles around the fort to create a river, black turning to white. “Well, hurry up, go look.”

L immediately presumed that Near must have captured Takada, that the lawyer Mikami’s home security had been no match for Beyond Birthday’s skills and that their spokesperson would soon lose her life. He didn’t bother to look to the other screens, feeling that at least one person should keep their focus on Near, but as Light gasped his attention was caught.

“Let her go!” Light demanded, taking over from L at the Near-centric screens and so L rushed to take a look. “She’s just a child…”

L’s eyes grew impossibly wider as he stared at the screen. Tied and bound tightly to a board as he had once bound Misa Amane, but without the blindfold over her eyes, Sayu Yagami was unconscious and slumped in the bindings. A spot of blood on her forehead betrayed that she had been knocked unconscious rather than drugged and in the corner of the cell Beyond was there, on all fours and grinning at the camera. Beside Sayu on a neatly laid out table were a selection of what he could only call torture equipment.

“Hmm,” Near mused. “Technically, I’m younger than her.”

“Technically you’re a psychopath,” Light growled. “She’s innocent. Let her go.”

“No.”

“Then I will kill you.” L quivered at the darkness in Light’s voice, the bloodthirst in the threat, but he hoped that Light would be cautious. Near would have thought of that most obvious of solutions, and of course he would have a plan.

“Well, if you like,” Near smiled again. “Of course, if either I or even Beyond drop dead the guards have been ordered to press a panic button. They don’t know the panic button releases a toxic gas that will kill the girl, slowly and painfully.”

“And Beyond,” Light reminded. “He’s in the cell too.”

“Hardly a loss,” Near scoffed. “So, what’s it going to be, Kira? Kill or control either of us and she dies.”

“If I don’t kill you, you will torture her anyway.”

“Well, I won’t, but Beyond certainly will,” Near turned a single Tarot card over between his fingers, the surface becoming stained with his blood. “And if you kill us, she will die but you will have the world.”

“You sound like you _want_ to die,” Light warned, but he flinched. His sister as price for his new world.

L knew Light cared for his family, knew that if through his actions his younger sister was killed he would forever be haunted by it. He could see Light weighing up his choices. Not wanting to startle him, he edged closer, taking his hand and interlocking their fingers to get his attention. He tried to smile reassuringly.

“We can save her,” he whispered. “Together. Please, don’t do anything rash…”

“If I don’t kill them they might just kill her anyway,” Light reminded L, equally quietly. “I could make them call off the guards before they die…”

“If they kill her, I will write their names myself, but Near will have made sure the guards will kill her if there is any sign that he or Beyond have been controlled, and that includes if they are told to leave their posts,” L reasoned. Light looked torn, but slowly he nodded. He swallowed and L could see him trying to refocus.

“Near,” Light sounded calm now, calm enough to fool Near. “I wonder whose idea this was, hmm?”

The boy on screen twirled a lock of hair around one finger.

“You’re right,” he admitted. “You did do me a favour by leaving him alive, Kira. Using the girl… making this personal… I might not have considered that.”

L tried not to give anything away to Light as he caught sight of Beyond moving. Light was focused on Near so he didn’t notice as Beyond surveyed the devices on the table, selecting a pair of shears and beginning by slicing away at the girl’s hair as she flinched away. Though her body was still slumped, her eyes opened just a little, both weakness and terror apparent.

“Mello,” Near addressed the boy who they had both overlooked in their focus on Sayu’s predicament. Mello was curled up in the chair, knees to his chest, Ryuk wrapped around him and engulfing him in what was probably meant to be a comforting hug.

“Near,” Mello was quiet, sounding hurt. “I would never have thought you capable of this…”

“Mello,” Near interrupted. “Before you die, I want you to know that you could have prevented all of this, if only you had joined me…”

“I made the right choice,” Mello declared after a long silence.

“Goodbye Mello.”

Near hit a key on the computer, but before the connection was cut they heard the first of Sayu’s screams as Beyond’s shears slipped.

“Guys… can you hear me?” Matt’s voice almost immediately cut through from the speakers, a little startled but not enough to suggest that he had seen any of what they were seeing.

“We can hear you,” L confirmed steadily, looking between Light and Mello. Both were hurting, but while Mello was shaking and looked on the verge of tears, Light looked like he would kill the next thing that moved. L reached slowly in front of him to cut the connection with Matt. “Kira?”

Light turned to him, regarding him silently.

“We will save her…” L assured him carefully.

“Of course.”

“And then they will die.”

“Yes.”

L waited, but Kira did not say anything more, and L didn’t dare to say anything either. Beneath the weight of Kira’s glare, he felt afraid, curling in to himself.

“We need to go to Japan,” Mello finally interrupted the silence. “We know where they are…”

“We have to be careful,” L reminded the boy, not taking his eyes off Light. “Near has some sort of plan. He said we wouldn’t survive the day.”

And Rem had suggested that they only had four days to live, before he made the eye deal and reduced his time to two. On this day of all days they had to tread with caution.

Light suddenly seemed to regain some sort of control over whatever was going through his mind, the ferocity dropped away and turning into action as he snatched up his Notebook and began to write, the small print quickly covering the front and back of a page.

“You can’t,” L reminded him, snatching the Notebook. “If he dies so does Sayu…”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t plan it though,” Light turned the book so that L could read, an elaborate and torturous death far worse than any he had written for their games. L read through it and finally nodded his approval. “You will give me his name?”

“Not now,” L was apologetic about it. “You can’t use it, not yet…”

“It would be a risk, but we could try controlling Beyond,” Mello suggested. “At least we could redirect him from hurting the girl…”

“My sister.”

“Your… shit, what the fuck does Near think he’s playing at?”

“This really won’t be Near’s plan,” L recognised, “Beyond always did like to play with fire.”

“Light, if she’s your sister Near won’t let her be hurt too badly,” Mello looked a little reassured, but Light was not.

“All the more reason for her to be hurt, and it’s my fault…”

“No, she’d be too valuable, as a bargaining chip and for ransom later,” Mello assured. “No, Near will protect her as much as he can.”

“As much as he can,” Light repeated, looking to L. “He won’t be able to control Beyond. I should have killed him when I had the chance.”

“You still will,” L promised. “With your bare hands, if you have to. I will make sure the path is cleared.”

“We have to go to Japan,” Light ultimately concluded.

“Yes,” L agreed, but he could not allow that, not yet. “But we can’t go yet, we can’t play into Near’s hands. Until today is done we have to stay where we can defend ourselves, and that place is here…”

“He’s right,” Ryuk chipped in to everyone’s surprise. “With the cameras here, anyone trying to kill you will be spotted before they get close enough and with the eyes you should be safe.”

“Ryuk,” Light realised, “L, you can see our lifespans? If we go…”

“We make it harder for me to protect us all with the Notebook, and the eyes,” L agreed. “We have to stay…”

“We have to save Sayu.”

L flinched a little at the order, knowing that he could not fulfil it, not yet.

“We have to save ourselves first.”

Light fell silent, studying him as he realised just how concerned L appeared.

“It’s really that urgent?”

“Today,” L told him, and Light appeared to deflate, the anger not leaving him perhaps but pushed aside for now as his own safety became his primary concern.

“You are sure?”

“He is,” Ryuk confirmed. L wondered just how far the Shinigami could stretch the rules in their favour, but it seemed with Mello to protect Ryuk was willing to take the chance.

Light had fallen silent, finally settling back into his chair to think, to plan.

“If we stay here we can prepare,” L reminded him, “Watari set up cameras outside. I can write names…”

“I couldn’t bring everything,” Mello added, “but I could set some traps for any intruders, and I have some of my weapons…”

“And we have Koinu,” L reminded him. “Even if he won’t side with us, he wouldn’t let any intruders hurt Kit.”

L took one of the laptops, beginning to search the internet, the anti-Kira forums and finding what he was searching for, turning the screen to Light.

“This is why there was so little resistance when the United Kingdom declared for Kira,” he showed them the address Near had evidently posted and the replies from hundreds of those who declared that they were taking action. “The people have come for Kira himself.”

“L,” Light scrolled through the posts, clicking on one or two of the links. Those who posted were not always careful with their personal information, even when names were hidden too many had connected their forum posts through facebook or myspace accounts. Their names and faces there for the world to see, and for Kira, who looked rather relieved when the first few lines were written in the Notebook and he was finally taking some form of action. “If you tell me this is a fetish again I will hurt you.”

“You’re going to make them kneel?”

Light spun the Notebook with its instructions.

_Heart attack. Leave the location where they are hiding and kneel outside the house. Guard its occupants from any outside who would harm them. Die in twenty-four hours._

“If it’s impossible to force them to change sides they will just die of a heart attack,” Light explained. “But this way…”

“I can do the same,” L suggested.

“Anyone whose name we write in the Notebook become our allies. With every name, their numbers grow fewer and ours in our favour.”

“It could work,” L agreed. “But… Mello?”

“Oh, I’m on it,” he grinned, looking to Ryuk, who shot through the wall and out to the tent, Mello running out of the door after him.

Light had stopped writing, his pen tapping on the page. L hovered nearby, worried that he would say or do the wrong thing and upset or anger Light, but when the younger man looked up to him it was with desperation.

“L…”

The detective rushed to him, kneeling in front of him with hands on his knees but Light reached out and pulled him in to his lap, wrapping arms around him and holding him close. L clutched him tightly and kept him there as he felt his shoulder growing moist.

When Light finally drew away with a shuddering breath, he closed his eyes and hid how bloodshot they appeared.

“Beyond will hurt her,” he spoke quietly. “Torture her… she might be better off dead than that.”

“No,” L assured him. “I watched your sister when I was watching you. She’s too much like you. She’s strong.”

“She’s just a child…”

“We _will_ save her,” L swore, but Light only hung his head.

“What will be left of her to save?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another sorry (not sorry) for the kind of cliffhanger... poor Sayu


	16. Conflict

At first he thought it must be thunder.

A rumbling, echoing in the cavernous roof space of the house. His sensitive ears detected it before any human ears could and his subconscious was instinctively alert to its unnatural nature even as he tried to turn over and curl up with the beautiful woman with whom he was lucky enough to spend the night. Half asleep, he didn’t recognise that the amount of light coming in through the curtains portrayed an irregularly bright, sunny day for the Scottish Highlands, so often cloudy and dim even in the brightest parts of the day.

He dismissed the noise and tried to fall back into a deeper sleep, his dreams skirting somewhere at the edges of his consciousness and threatening to overtake his thoughts once again before he heard it.

A terrific, deafening blast.

As sleep left him, a part of him dismissed the noise as coming from his dreams. After all, beside him Kit did not stir, but he knew she was a heavy sleeper and as the sounds of screaming reached him he began to realise that the bang that woke him had been real.

“Wake her up,” Rem, a skeletal Shinigami whose presence still unnerved him, hovered over the bed supported by still, unbeating wings. “She’s not safe here…”

“What’s going on?” Koinu demanded, turning Kit onto her back and doing the only thing he had found that would wake her up in the past – sadly nothing sexual, since he had been in his fox form for so long. He changed swiftly, fur sprouting and body shrinking, jumping onto her chest and licking with rough tongue over her cheek towards her eye. As his tongue approached the eyelid Kit shoved him away, glaring.

“What…”

With near perfect timing there was another blast outside, an echo to human ears through the open window. Kit launched herself from the bed, snatching at the curtains to pull them open and seeing the dirt cast into the air from what must have been a landmine settling and clearing.

“They are here for Kira,” Rem announced. “Do you have a basement?”

“Yes,” Kit snatched a small box from her beside table. Koinu knew from his time as a fox, when Kit would spend hours on end telling him stories – about herself, about her family and fictions, too, anything to fill the silence since he couldn’t speak to her – that the box contained her mother’s wedding ring and her grandmother’s charm bracelet, commemorating the milestones in her life.

“Is that wise?” Rem questioned, looking wary. “She would be trapped if they get inside.”

“If they get inside, and we’re still here, we’re dead anyway,” Koinu excused, unable to think of a better option at that moment. “Go down to the basement, Kit. Hurry.”

Kit nodded, biting her lip as she looked nervously to him but heading away. Koinu looked to Rem. He may not like the Shinigami, who Rem had always treated as a friend and confidant over the time he was stuck as a fox, but now was not the time for their rivalry.

“You’ll help me protect her?”

“Of course, little fox,” Rem agreed with some similar reluctance.

Another blast from outside, still fairly distant but audible to his ears.

“Come on,” he tugged on a long coat to cover his nudity and rushed through to the sitting room where L, Light and Mello were sat around looking oblivious. “Can’t you hear that?”

The three looked round to him, surprised.

“You can hear something?” Mello was the first to jump in to action, taking one of L’s computers and flicking between the camera views until he found one which showed utter chaos.

There could have been any number of people struck by that blast, the crater it left ten feet deep and wider again. Some of the dust hadn’t settled, but through the dirt it was possible to see a group of people, huddled together on the edge of the blast radius, looking terrified.

“They’re here,” Mello told them unnecessarily.

“L,” Light looked to the detective. “Their names?”

“…No,” L observed their fear, having sympathy for them, even if they had come to fight against Kira. “Only if they continue to fight…”

The group that could be seen on this camera seemed to have no interest in fighting any more, all more focused on comforting one another than forming a lynch mob.

“The mines work,” Mello looked conflicted; triumphant because his homemade creation had been so effective but sickened by its effects. He flicked through more camera views and found another that had exploded, this time leaving evidence of loss of life, some bloodied clothing in one of the trees between the blast and the camera. Koinu stared at the trouser leg.

“This is war,” Light reminded him warily. Koinu realised that his tails were still visible to give away his thoughts, having never shifted them away after the night before. They were twitching in a revealing way and though he could consciously control them he didn’t think they would be his first priority so he shifted, absorbing them in to his form.

Koinu couldn’t care less about Kira’s war. Kira, Near, what did it matter to him? In the grand scheme of things life wouldn’t change for the general public. On the whole even huge political changes didn’t affect most people – they would carry on with their daily lives as if nothing had happened. It was the conflict, the wars and struggles that came with the change that would damage or destroy lives. As a Kitsune he was naturally inclined to avoid this sort of struggle, but with Kit… he had to protect her, she was _his_ and he was _hers_ , and no matter how archaic those instincts seemed to his more modern human thinking his Kitsune nature lived by instinct alone.

“How many of them are there?” he questioned, prompting Mello to look through the cameras and find more figures, mostly hidden in the trees or a distance away, waiting.

“A few strayed too close, closer than they were meant to,” L realised. “They’re waiting for something.”

“Some form of signal?”

Mello was still scrolling through the cameras and had found his way back to the first crater, a different view. A solitary man was crossing it, walking right along the shallow edge of the destruction with a half-dazed look on his face and the confident step of someone who clearly had no idea of the danger he was walking in to. L and Light looked at each other knowingly.

“Beyond,” they both spoke together, recognising his influence. One of his puppets.

The man walking the edge of the crater was old, but not so elderly as Watari. His body was not so thin as to be called frail, but he was not far off. He carried a box with him, treating it carefully.

“We have to stop him,” Light looked to L. “That could be a bomb.”

L nodded, writing a name in the Death Note Rem had provided along with instructions. Within a few seconds the words had taken effect and the man began to walk, one foot in front of the other in a manner that was more natural now under influence of the Note than when controlled by Beyond Birthday. He didn’t make his way to the house, instead placing himself and the box he held perfectly in the line of view for their focused camera and opening the box.

Inside, a finger.

Light gasped, fury obvious.

“Sayu…”

“It’s not hers,” L reminded him. “It can’t be, the flight’s too long, he’s trying to upset you…”

Koinu realised that he had missed something, but between them this group always seemed to think they were more intelligent than those around them. He didn’t care whose finger it was; people were dying, lots of them, so why did one finger matter? But Kira did seem to be angry, at least to look at. It didn’t take a genius of a Kitsune to see it was a mask, to catch the scent of his distress.

“Focus,” he snapped, ignoring the surprised looks he got. “If this is war, you’re meant to be the general, you can’t get distracted so easily.”

“You’re right,” Light deflated a little but that scent was still obvious, the feeling pushed aside but still present.

Koinu was glad that he had spoken as another blast sounded, loud to his ears but perhaps faint to those of the humans. It sounded like it had an echo, but then again and again. More mines exploding.

“How far are they from the house?”

“About fifteen minutes walk,” Mello flicked through cameras, gasping as he saw the evidence of the further explosions and the advancing crowd emerging from the trees into the view of the camera.

“How many?” Koinu had a sinking feeling.

“Hundreds,” Mello estimated. “Or… thousands.”

“L,” Light prompted, and L began to write.

L paused as one of the figures on the screen dropped, biting the end of his pen and looking expectant. Light frowned as he realised that the man had died through heart attack.

“Change the instructions,” Light suggested commandingly. “Find something that works. Give me an army.”

L nodded, releasing the pen, leaving a smudge of red on his lip – Koinu remembered an innocuous comment about blue looking too calm for the Notebook – and starting to write, to experiment. His sensitive nose detected something from the detective that left him disgusted with the man. Did he enjoy killing so much… or perhaps it was Kira that he enjoyed, Kira’s power? But this was different than the mark of Kit’s possession that he wore around his neck, darker and more unpleasant.

It took a few attempts before the first didn’t die of a heart attack, but they had plenty of time for those adjustments to be made and L had it mastered quickly. More mines went off and then Mello flicked to another layer of the camera system where flame throwers lit a coppice of trees alight, blocking the path of many of those advancing.

“Fuck yeah!” he bounced a little in his seat as he saw his second layer of traps take effect – without casualties but making many of the crowd at the minimum hang back and some turned away altogether.

“I could…” Koinu considered the flames, reaching out with his senses but unable to feel the heat of the fire from so far away and so unable to direct it. If he could, he may not have enough control to put out the flames but he could steer them, turn them into a weapon against this…

Army, he supposed. An army of civilians, perhaps, but this was not just a lynch mob.

“Yes?” Light latched on to his aborted suggestion. He flinched. He didn’t want to be so far from Kit as to go close enough to control this fire.

“Never mind.”

Across the screens groups of people were trying to stop the crowd but though a few stopped, most would continue and pick up pace. Koinu could hear them, their footprints, their voices. L’s pen wrote as quickly as it could but there were too many and there was only so much he could do.

“Mello?” Light prompted next, and the boy nodded. He looked determined as he collected from beneath the sofa a pair of machine guns, handing one to Light.

“You’re shooting?” L looked shocked. Koinu didn’t know why; Light couldn’t see names, so he couldn’t do the same as L, but he also didn’t have any qualms about killing.

“Koinu,” Light addressed instead. “Are you with us?”

“I will defend Kit,” he agreed.

There was a distant thrumming noise, faint yet even to his ears but getting ever louder. It was vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t immediately place it. His hearing may be more sensitive than a regular human’s but he was still more accustomed to reading the world primarily through sight and smell, not his hearing.

“There’s something else coming,” he warned them anyway. “A long way away yet but it’s getting louder.”

“Keep me informed,” Light nodded, taking the gun to the window. Perhaps Mello had shown him how it was to be used in advance because he loaded it easily and rested it on the ledge of the window to allow him to aim.

“Mello,” L was writing as fast as he could but there were far too many passing through the view of the cameras. “Can you channel them?”

“Can do boss,” the boy pulled what looked more like a computer game than a weapon from his pocket and began pushing buttons. On the screens, cameras showed whole swathes of trees surrounding the property burst alight as flamethrowers lit them.

Koinu watched the cameras, somewhat sickened by the contrast; the death and destruction outside, the people running screaming, whilst inside there was nothing but calm. L writing in a Notebook, Mello toying with his detonator. Even Kira, whilst armed with one of Mello’s guns, was waiting patiently for something to do.

Whether he agreed with Kira or not, he was glad he was not trying to fight against them. They made for formidable opponents.

“It isn’t even a challenge,” Light complained, frowning, and though L continued to write he nodded his agreement. “I would have thought Near would do better. Haven’t we been defending governments around the world from this sort of attack?”

Koinu couldn’t help but despise the hint of boredom in Light’s tone, like he had been looking forward to a challenge, like this was all a game to him.

Except… above the screams he could hear it now. Clear as day, and surely they all must be able to hear it too. The thrumming was louder, but not just one… multiple, and distinctive.

“Helicopters.”

“Pardon?” Light’s eyes widened.

“The noise,” Koinu was certain, “it’s helicopter rotors.”

L and Light looked at one another, silent communication passing between them.

“Mello, do you have anything…”

“Yes, my handy missile launcher,” Mello’s voice dripped with sarcasm, but L beamed at him.

“Really?”

“ _No_.” Mello huffed. “… It’s at Wammy’s.”

“Damn,” L swore, going back to writing.

“Koinu,” Light looked to him now. “This is where we need you.”

“What?” he gawped, not sure what he was supposed to do against the incoming aircraft.

“As Kitsune you can set fires,” Light confirmed. “How close do you need to be?”

“Pretty damn close,” he frowned, not sure how this would help them. “Not into the air into a moving target.”

“Alright, but Kitsune can also fly?”

Koinu’s heart sank. “Think again Kira, I can’t _fly_ like that, just a few feet from the ground. Not high enough to be of any use…”

“So if you can’t,” Light was grinning, “you’ll have to be carried.”

“Carried…” Koinu yelped, startled, as Ryuk snatched him off his feet.

“Aye aye captain!” the Shinigami giggled, saluting Light with his free hand. Mello couldn’t help but laugh as well as Koinu fought viciously against the Death God’s hold, slipping free when he shifted into a fox but getting tangled in the loose collar as he landed on the floor.

“If you’re invisible and a fox it’ll be easier,” Light suggested. “Leave the collar off.”

Koinu snarled, bare toothed at Kira but he had already turned away. A wall of people had formed in front of the house, all of them on their knees. A few solitary figures were still standing and within shooting range, so Light began to fire the machine gun, just a few bullets for now to clear up those L’s pen couldn’t work fast enough to take down.

“Take this,” L proffered a small communicator to him with his non-writing hand. “Once you’re on a helicopter keep us in the loop.”

Koinu growled, snapping at L’s fingers, but he had little choice. This would help to protect Kit. He took the communicator between his teeth and looked expectantly to Ryuk, who picked him up by the scruff of the neck.

“Good luck,” Light allowed, firing off another round of gunfire.

The Shinigami shot out of the window with Koinu in his grasp. Koinu was not afraid of heights, and the flight was not rocked by any turbulence that should be expected with wings. It was supernatural flight, similar to his own but not so limited, and had it not been for talons caught in the scruff of his neck he would have been quite comfortable.

There were five helicopters in total, three which looked military in nature although he had not seen any military figures in the crowd below. Had they stolen these, or was this the first wave of an army response to Kira?

How had they even been found? Koinu would have questions for Light, but they would have to wait until this somewhat bizarre fight for their lives was over and won.

Ryuk flew to the first helicopter, turning and matching speed so that they flew alongside it. Koinu focused, trying to create a spark, a flash of flame within the engine mechanism, but there was nothing that he could do to force it. His fire was instinctive, created from need to defend his mate Kit. Once the fire burned he could guide it, but for a start he needed…

He thought of her, locked in the basement. Frightened and alone. He thought he might be able to light that fire as anger and fear boiled up inside him.

Ryuk interpreted his pause differently, and swept them in to the helicopter, dropping him between the pilot and co-pilot.

At the back of the military style helicopter were a collection of objects, stereotypically shaped. His vulpine eyes widened as he recognised them. He shifted his form back to human, remaining invisible and crouched to speak very softly into the earpiece he spat from between his teeth.

“L, they have bombs.”

He sited the earpiece, looking to the pilot and the co-pilot. They didn’t seem to have heard him, and the helicopters were flying closely enough together for him to launch flames from here. On either side the regular, non-military helicopters lit alight, fuelled by fear for what the bombs could mean for Kit, hidden alone in that basement.

Three more. Two on either side, and the one he was on.

“L, what should I do?” he trusted the detective at least a little more than Kira. “If I bring them down the bombs could explode and I don’t know how far they would blast, how much damage they would do…”

“Hold,” L demanded through the earpiece. “Just hold there a moment.”

Koinu watched through the window as the house came in to clear view. He had to do something, soon.

“Ryuk,” he looked round to the Shinigami, “go down there and get Kit out. Warn Rem.”

“It’s your funeral,” Ryuk drifted through the floor of the helicopter, taking flight as his wings caught the air beneath.

Koinu held in place, waiting impatiently as his only means of escape flew away from him on black feathered wings.


	17. Retreat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in this one, been distracted starting the new story in addition

Light might not have been thinking as clearly as he usually would, knowing that Sayu was captured and at the mercy of Beyond Birthday, but he was not stupid and his mind could still work even though his anger was not soothed by the chance to take out his anger by killing those who would stand against him.

“We can’t bring them all down,” he interrupted L’s thought process after Koinu warned them of the bombs.

“What?” L had been poised to instruct Koinu but held off, waiting for Light’s command. Light almost wished that he wouldn’t, wished that L would use that brilliant mind to Kira’s advantage rather than agreeably following orders. He would talk to him about that, but now was not the time.

“We have to let Near think that we’re dead,” he suggested. “It’s the only way to get close.”

If Near thought they were dead he might be at least a little bit lax about his security. At best he could be arrogant, showing off about it. At worst he might kill Sayu when she was no longer needed, but there was a chance that Sayu would die either way.

“What should we do?” L questioned.

“Commandeer a helicopter. Leave in that,” Light reasoned.

“Blow up the house?” L questioned, following the thought to its only conclusion, and Light was forced to pause to fire a few rounds as Mello shouted that he couldn’t get a shot on some of the approaching attackers.

“Do you see a better option?” he questioned once they had fallen. If they could get control of one of the helicopters, they could get away. They could make sure that the helicopter’s landing was masked by smoke and fire, and the other two helicopters, the bombs, they could be used to destroy the building so thoroughly that no one would expect to find any human remains in the rubble.

“…no, but we owe Kit.”

“You have money,” Light reasoned. “And Kira will be God of the new world. It’ll destroy this house but we can buy her another one, anywhere.”

Light understood that she still would be unhappy with that, no matter how much money they spent. He understood that the four walls they were within were more than a house to Kit, they were a home. He understood that most people would consider such sentiments, but he did not and he couldn’t afford to. Not now, not in this war and not whilst Sayu was being held hostage by a madman and a child psychopath.

Light fired a few final rounds from the machine gun before discarding it, snatching up his own Death Note and heading towards the basement to collect Kit and beyond that the back exit. L lingered, unable to leave his computer which connected to Koinu’s ear piece.

“Mello,” L frowned at the boy who remained poised with his detonator, watching the cameras. “You need to get out.”

“Not without you.”

“Foolish boy,” L grumbled, using his laptop to turn off the other screens, making it impossible for Mello to continue his task. “Go. I won’t be left behind.”

“Then I won’t be either,” Mello argued. “I won’t let you sacrifice yourself so that Kira can get away.”

L hadn’t intended to, so he gawped at his successor.

“L, they’re getting too close, what should I do?”

“Koinu,” L reluctantly instructed, attention diverted back onto task. “Don’t let them see you… look around, can you see any identification, any names?”

“There’s…” the very faint sound of movements, rifling through something. “There’s a bag… there’s a wallet… got it.”

“We need it,” L demanded. “Send it down here with Ryuk…”

“I can’t,” Koinu hissed, flustered. “He’s gone to get Kit out…”

“I told you to hold on,” L grumbled, rethinking. “Fine. Do they have a phone? I’ll give you the number, send a photo…”

It took a few seconds, but then there was a ping on L’s phone and he could see the face and name from the driver’s licence of one of the pilots of the helicopter.

“Koinu, since we’re doing it this way, can you get a photo of the other pilot? It would be easier with both of them.”

“What are you going to do?” Koinu challenged, but after a few moments the image came through; a side-on shot but it was enough. L could see the name. “We’re almost over the house.”

“Set the others on fire,” L ordered. “Before they reach us.”

L wrote instructions in his Notebook, followed by the two names. He didn’t check to see if it worked, snatching up his favoured laptop and the Note – no time to gather any more sentimental items, not that he had many – and glared at Mello.

“Move.”

The boy snatched up the two machine guns and joined him, rushing through to the back of the house where the door stood open. A few hundred metres ahead Light was following Rem and Kit away from the house and straight towards a wall of fire created by Mello’s flamethrowers.

“We’re not going to be far enough away…” Mello was looking back, so L snatched at his hand and dragged him forwards before suddenly being winded as a long arm grabbed him around the chest and squeezed the air from his lungs.

“This isn’t fun anymore,” Ryuk growled as his wings beat frantically to support both their weight as well as his own, the speed of the flight whipping the wind through L’s too long messy hair.

“Thank you,” Mello’s voice was drowned out by the explosions behind them as the two helicopters that Koinu had lit crashed to the ground on the other side of the house. L kept his eyes forwards, refusing to look back. This was a gamble, but a calculated one. It depended on what the bombs were, how big their blast radius…

Hot air buffeted them, but it was a tolerable heat, not burning.

As he had thought, the bombs were some of the weakest in the British arsenal; anything bigger would have been kept under a greater degree of security, and with Britain on their side they were safe from those.

Behind them would be a cloud of dirt and smoke, masking their escape as the final helicopter came in to land ahead of them. Ryuk swept them beneath the rotor blades and inside as Light and Kit caught up. As soon as the helicopter landed the two pilots had unfastened from their seats and disembarked the other side, leaving the seats free as they dropped dead outside, their hearts stopping.

L took the first seat, Mello rushing to take the other.

“You know how to fly a helicopter?” L questioned as the boy started to push all the right buttons.

“Matt has a simulator,” he explained. “You do too?”

“It’s really quite intuitive,” L excused.

“You’re welcome by the way,” Koinu grumbled from the back of the helicopter where he had pulled Kit into a tight embrace. Rem was on the other side of her, fussing in a way that belied her usual detached manner.

“Couldn’t have done it without you,” Light thanked, clapping him on the shoulder before he came to stand over L’s seat. “Can we get this thing moving quickly?”

“Like this?” Mello grinned as he grasped one of the controls and set the rotors running faster, whipping up to speed and lifting from the ground and away.

“Stay close to the tree line,” L caught Mello’s hand with his long fingers, guiding the helicopter lower. “It’s harder to fly but we’ll be hidden longer.”

“Near will know we got away,” Mello frowned. “He’ll see that the helicopter is gone…”

“It’s not going to be,” L assured. “Not exactly, we just need to get a bit further…”

L navigated the helicopter around, passing overhead the crater left by one of Mello’s landmines and back towards the house.

“Up now,” he instructed, releasing Mello’s hand and focusing on something else on the controls.

The house was still standing, though the beautiful white frontage was blackened now from the explosion and the windows hand been shattered. The other three sides remained perfect and made stark contrast to the destruction surrounding them.

“Oh no,” Kit struggled to pull away from the two who held her in her seat. “L, don’t you dare…”

“I’ll buy you a new one,” Light promised as the first bomb dropped.

“That’s my home!”

The second bomb that dropped was clearly overkill as the first landed and the blast shook the helicopter with so much force that Mello struggled to control its flight, nearly getting caught in an eddy of changing pressure and plummeting downwards a few dozen feet before it shot away.

“Don’t drop the last one,” Light sounded suddenly startled as the third bomb at the back of the helicopter was revealed by dropping the second. “It’s different…”

L looked round, checking, and gawped.

“Mello, fly carefully,” he turned back to the controls. Mello took a look for himself and leapt from his chair, rushing to the bomb.

“I never thought I’d see one of these,” he was stroking the metal lovingly, resting his cheek on its surface.

“Oh God,” Kit gasped, insistently pulling out of the seat now to move as far from the bomb as possible. “It can’t be a nuke?”

“Don’t listen to her baby, it’s okay,” Mello soothed the weapon. “L, can I keep it?”

“No.”

“What is it?” Light demanded, pulling Mello away. The boy whined but allowed it, returning to his seat at the controls to sulk.

“Thermobaric bomb,” L explained. “The blast from _that_ would be at least ten times larger than the previous ones put together and the explosive in it is toxic, too.”

Light considered the weapon with concern before a small grin spread. “Pity.”

“What?”

“It’s too large to ram down Near’s throat,” Light darkly joked. “Where are you taking us?”

“Edinburgh,” L was piloting them confidently, knowing exactly where his goal would be. “Watari has gone ahead.”

“He’s preparing a flight to Japan?” Light considered. “How are we going to get through the airport?”

“We’re not going to the airport.”

* * *

 

The helicopter came in to land as gently as they could manage in the grounds of Holyrood Palace, keeping well away from the historic building on the unlikely but terrifying chance that the bomb might detonate. The team were only too keen to disembark and hurry to meet Watari, who was waiting for them beside an aircraft that the royals stood with him likely considered modestly sized.

“Your majesty,” Kit’s eyes were wide as she approached and attempted a clumsy curtsey.

“We don’t have time for that,” L scolded.

Light was holding the eye of the Monarch, both assessing one another.

“Watari, stay in England,” L instructed. “Look after Kit and Koinu. They deserve a reward for their assistance.”

“They will be well cared for,” Watari promised.

“Thank you,” L moved past him to the aircraft, Mello and Ryuk following him. Rem remained behind, lingering with Kit, but as L moved away she was forced to go with him, realising he would not consider giving her permission to stay. She could still be useful to them in this fight.

Light looked to Watari.

“There’s a bomb in that helicopter,” he warned. “Best be careful with who has access to it from here on.”

“You are younger than I expected,” the Monarch spoke up before he could leave. “Clever, true, and you hold yourself like royalty, but not yet wise.”

Light scowled, mouth opening to respond but she continued.

“One hopes you will not forget that once you have the world at your feet, boy.”

“Age is no guarantee of wisdom,” he grinned. “But if I need a little spare, I will know where I can find it?”

“Best go,” Watari reminded as L waved him across.

The plane was far more comfortable than the helicopter had been, giving them space to spread out and not requiring any of them to pilot. Mello had discarded both machine guns and was lounged with Ryuk across multiple seats, looking exhausted. Rem had taken a seat at the back of the aircraft, watching out of the window as they pulled away from the palace. L had taken up his deductive crouch beside another table, his computer in front of him and connecting to satellites so that he could use it during the flight.

Light sat opposite him across a table, waiting for L to look at him before speaking.

“Near still might not believe that we’re dead.”

“Indeed.”

“And if he realises we’re coming for Sayu he will kill her.”

“Yes.”

“How can we save her, L?”

L frowned, falling silent. Light understood, leaving him to his thoughts as he tried to think of the best possible plan. He considered it himself, but the conclusion he had reached was one he was keen to avoid.

To get Sayu back they would have to make a trade. If they wanted something, they would have to give something up. The most obvious choice, the closest equivalent to Sayu…

Light looked to Mello, considering just how much of a risk he would be willing to take. The boy was the same age as Sayu, but he was L’s successor. Light cared about him, but he could handle himself. He might even be able to fight back, perhaps even kill Beyond and Near if it came down to it. But he was also Near’s friend, or he had been, and that might stay his hand.

Hopefully L could think of another way, because right now Light wasn’t sure he would trust Mello to remain on their side in this fight.

* * *

 

“Your toy soldiers failed,” Beyond crushed Near’s latest Lego creation under the thick sole of his boot.

“The helicopters…”

“Blew up the house,” Beyond agreed. “Don’t think for a second that they were still in it.”

“They will be coming here,” Near wanted to pick up one of the few remaining Lego people before Beyond could crush it but he was wary of having his fingers stomped on. “We still have Sayu.”

“She doesn’t bleed prettily,” the cruel man complained. “Her screams are too shrill.”

Near flinched as Beyond took out a device that instilled terror in him; the crocodile shears were clicked open and closed a couple of times with Beyond looking increasingly delighted with his toy. Near clutched his knees to his chest, tucking hands between his legs to as to not even show a finger as an alternative target for the tool.

“Never did get to use these back in LA,” Beyond clicked the shears, the mechanism rusted enough that every time he opened them it scraped unpleasantly, adding to the level of fear. “Always wondered how long it would take for someone to bleed out if I did…”

“You…” Near’s voice was a squeak. “You could go out and find someone to try them on?”

“Hmm,” blood red eyes looked the boy over once. “Trying to get rid of me, child?”

Near couldn’t answer without getting the man angry with him; he was, but he couldn’t say that. Neither could he deny it and anger Beyond with a lie.

“And you thought you would be the one in control,” Beyond giggled, shoving the device back into his pocket. Near desperately tried to stop his whole body from shaking, tried to look impassive.

“I am in control,” he argued. “They’re still going to kill you.”

“And you,” Beyond warned. “Relax. Have a bit of fun with it.”

“I’m going to win,” Near declared, but he could hear the lie in his voice as clearly as the man could.

“I’m off out for a while. Try not to fail at anything else whilst I’m gone.”

Near breathed a sigh of relief as Beyond left the room without hurting him, slowly uncurling his arms and legs and gathering what was left of his toys. He winced as every movement of his left leg sent shooting pains through his small frame; he hadn’t been able to check it, with Beyond around, but he was quite sure that the wound must have become infected.

He had been arrogant, thinking that he could control Beyond, thinking that L and Kira would fall for his plans. He should have seen the emotional attachment between L and Kira, known that they would not be broken apart so easily. He should have done so many things.

He was thirteen, and still learning. Even L was twice his age, and infinitely more experienced. He should never have thought that he was ready to challenge Kira, never have thought that he could win this.

And yet… Beyond had Sayu, and the fact that they were both still alive proved that this had been a good move to make, that Kira didn’t want to see her dead. They had a valuable bargaining chip. Valuable enough to make a trade. Perhaps, if he could get to Mello, he and Mello could kill Beyond together? If he did that, maybe he could prove to Mello that he should, maybe, be given another chance?

It might be his only chance, not to win – victory was out of the question now – but at least to survive.


	18. Initiative

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delays in chapters, real life can be a pest.

The small aircraft landed at a private airfield in Japan as Watari had orchestrated. Cars waited for them there, a uniform rank of black vehicles that were conspicuous only in that they all matched one another perfectly.

“Kira,” the driver of the front vehicle greeted, bending a knee. L scowled as he knelt, glancing to Light and mouthing the word ‘fetish’. Light stood deliberately on L’s toes as he passed. “The front car is for you, the one behind for L and the one behind that for Mello.”

“I would rather we travel together,” Light frowned, a little puzzled. Why would Watari do it this way?

“I… If you wish, Sir… but each vehicle has armed guards in the back seats…” the driver stumbled over his words. “They are there to protect you, and this way any attacker can’t just target one car…”

Light looked to L, who shrugged. It made sense, in a way, but he wasn’t happy about it.

“Alright,” he agreed. However, before he moved to the front vehicle, he tore a page from the Death Note and offered it to Mello. “Keep this with you at all times.”

Hopefully this was Watari’s doing. Since L didn’t look too suspicious it was possible. However, he was concerned that if Near and Beyond knew that they were here this would be a perfect way to separate the three of them. If one of the drivers, or all of them, were under Beyond’s control…

It was a huge risk, but this had been a risk from the beginning. At least if each of them had some paper from the Note they stood a chance of defending themselves.

“L, the names of our drivers,” he requested before moving away, committing their names and faces to his memory.

In the car were two guards as promised, each armed with automatic rifles. They inclined their heads to him as he got in the car and it took only a moment before the driver was pulling away, headed for Tokyo.

“Has Watari arranged a place for us to go?”

“Of course,” the driver looked a little… glazed. Light’s heart began to race and he reached for his Notebook, but then stilled as he felt a sharp pinprick in his back.

“Apologies, Sir, for any inconvenience,” the driver hit the accelerator as Light fought to keep his eyes open but fighting the drug that had been injected was futile. He only had time to wonder if it was only him or whether they had all been drugged and taken.

* * *

 

When Mello realised that only two cars had pulled up outside the hotel he had been shocked, but L’s calm expression had reassured him. This must be part of some plan he and Light – or maybe he and Watari – had cooked up together. But as the day wore on and L didn’t speak, just crouched in a chair and ate the sweets he continuously ordered from room service, Mello became more and more nervous.

It was getting dark before Mello finally challenged him.

“L, how can you be so calm?” he wondered. “Where is Light?”

“Beyond has him.”

Mello froze, sure that he must have heard incorrectly. L said it so simply, so calmly, like he had expected it. Like it was part of a plan…

“But if they’ve got him, they’ll kill him!”

“No.”

“What?” Mello looked to Ryuk, who shifted uncomfortably.

“I don’t know Akane,” he was apologetic. “Your lifespan is better now…”

“Beyond has him. Not Near,” L explained. “He won’t just kill him.”

“He’ll _torture_ him and _then_ he’ll kill him.”

“No.”

“What the fuck do you mean, _no_? How can you be so fucking calm!”

Mello wasn’t calm. Mello couldn’t be calm. Their whole plan, their whole existence was predicated on the survival of Kira. If Beyond killed him, they had definitely chosen the wrong side and he would be damned if he went pleading to Near now for his life.

“These plans… they’ve been too easy to foil,” L explained. “Near could have done better on his own, but with Beyond he should have been truly dangerous.”

“The world is burning!”

“We’re all still alive,” L sighed. He nipped his fingertip between teeth, sharply enough to draw a drop of blood. Mello fixated on that small sign of anxiety. “I thought about this on the plane. Mello, Beyond has been blocking the best of Near’s plans since day one. If he was truly working with him we would be dead.”

“You can’t think Beyond is on our side…”

“Beyond is on his own side,” L agreed. He sighed heavily, wiping the fingertip on his white shirt, leaving a red line. “That might not be incompatible with our plans.”

“So… you…” Mello gawped. “You knew. You knew Watari wouldn’t split us up – you _let_ Beyond take him!”

“It was the only way…”

“Fuck, L!”

“Beyond won’t kill him…”

“Oh, you’re sure of that?” Mello was incredulous.

“I am.”

Mello was all but set to storm out, to go search for Light with Ryuk’s assistance to perform a bold and heroic rescue, but he held back. In all his arsenal, all he had were the two machine guns – and one small pistol he had stashed in a boot – and he couldn’t imagine storming a tower built with L’s security measures with only these things.

“Then why would he take him?” he wondered, confused.

“To make a deal,” L shrugged. “Beyond wants something from Kira.”

“His life?”

“He doesn’t care about that.”

Mello thought about it, not sure why L would be so sure.

“Power, then?”

“In a way,” L sighed. “What incentive would Beyond have to help Near create this fight?”

“He likes chaos,” Mello argued. “You said it yourself.”

“He does, but there’s one thing I’ve seen him truly enthusiastic about since he went to prison.”

“Which is?”

“Kira.” L explained simply. “Not the killing criminals part – I don’t think he could care less about that. But the power of Kira, the way that Kira did something he never could.”

“Stay out of prison?”

“Defeat me,” L shrugged. “Even though I chose to give him that victory, I am undeniably compromised. Defeated, conquered, dominated…”

“Oh shit.”

“Yes.”

“This is a sexual thing?”

“He did ask for it, once,” L sighed. “I would really rather not risk this, but…”

“But you think Kira might be able to win him over with sex, like he did you?”

“Maybe,” L nipped a finger between his teeth. “But it’s more than that and it isn’t Light that he’s interested in. Beyond always did want to best me.”

“But it’s Light that he has taken.”

“Precisely.”

Mello concluded that L was gambling; the more he questioned, the more unsure L appeared.

“Are we just supposed to wait here and let Beyond do what he wants?”

“No,” L took out some papers, beginning to draw. The floor plan for the Japan tower. “Whilst Beyond is occupied we need to go after Near.”

“But then they will kill Sayu.”

“Rem,” L looked round to the Shinigami. “Could you keep yourself hidden from Near’s cameras and go to the tower, keep an eye on Sayu Yagami and tell us when she is released?”

“The sooner this is over the better,” she agreed warily. “If I am seen they will kill her.”

“You will have to be extremely careful,” L agreed. “But we cannot act until she is freed.”

* * *

 

Kira’s eyes drifted open slowly and against his better judgement, not wanting to let anyone know that he was awake but needing to know where he was and more than a little frightened that Beyond might be preparing his torture table for when he woke.

The room was just like the one Sayu had been held in, but rather than being strapped to a table Light was held up in a metal cage shaped to his body and holding him upright. He couldn’t turn his head, but his eyes were not covered and he could look around, could see that there was nothing in front of him in the empty room.

Unfortunately, it did not remain empty for long. Beyond must have seen on a camera that he was awake, or he was just that lucky to walk in at that very moment.

“Kira Kira Kira,” Beyond tutted. “That was a silly mistake to make.”

It was, utterly ridiculous, and Light scolded himself for it, but then L had seemed comfortable enough with it, and he would know what Watari would usually do… and he had begun to trust L. He didn’t believe that even L would have gone so far to convince him to trust, only to betray him now.

Beyond grinned broadly at him, turning a knife over between his fingers. It was a narrow, sharp blade that looked like it had been sharpened exquisitely, and he seemed heedless that every so often it would slip and leave a fine line of blood on his skin.

“And yet, I’m still breathing,” Light pointed out. “You could have killed me when you had the chance.”

Surely, after how far they had come, he couldn’t lose like this. Kira was a God; he couldn’t die captured and bound by a madman with a knife.

“I could,” Beyond flicked his wrist and the knife clattered into the wall behind him, slicing nothing but a few strands of hair. Light was controlled enough not to flinch, but it was difficult to maintain as Beyond took out another knife and flicked it past his other ear.

“You don’t want me dead,” Light had always been good at controlling his expressions and did his best to mimic Beyond’s grin. The psychology of the mimicry was simple but sound; encouraging emotional connection, and perhaps in return allowing him some insight into Beyond’s thoughts and feelings. It was a skill Light had perfected with so many others, but with Beyond he struggled. Perhaps a sign of his unsound mind. “You have a different agenda.”

Another knife, this one embedding in the wood in front of his left great toe.

“Besides turning you into a pincushion?” Beyond strode up to him, and close up it was evident just how much taller the madman was when he didn’t slouch; taller than Light by half a foot. He giggled, tipping his head sideways. “I suppose…”

He wasn’t going to die. Light was increasingly sure of it. If Beyond had wanted to kill him, he would either be dead already or Beyond would not bother to be careful with where the knives flew. Since none of them had hit – yet at least – Beyond did not intend to kill him. Assured and more confident, or perhaps no longer as affected by the drug he had been given Light was able to think more clearly.

“I still have four questions,” Light reminded him. “From America.”

“Hmm, I’m the one doing the interrogating,” Beyond argued, but he turned the latest knife over in his palm, frowning.

“Four questions that you have to answer honestly,” Light demanded firmly. “What are you hoping to gain from this?”

“Define this?”

“Capturing me.”

“Two things,” Beyond didn’t throw the knife, returning it to the sleeve he had pulled it from with a twist of the wrist. His head returned to being upright, looking Light in the eye with unhidden interest.

“Be more specific.”

“To undermine Near’s plans,” Beyond giggled. “He thought he could order me around, can you imagine?”

“He’s arrogant enough to try,” Light found himself returning the madman’s grin more genuinely. To picture the thirteen-year-old trying to contain Beyond’s madness and bloodthirst… maybe he would have grown to be capable of such a feat, but he was young yet and still learning. Naïve, and in his childish impatience he would lose all chance. “But that’s only one.”

“To have L kneel at my feet,” Beyond purred. “Like he does yours… Kira.”

Beyond leaned in to whisper the name but punctuated it by biting Light’s earlobe. Unable to pull away, Light instead chose to lean into the metal bar beside his head, forcing Beyond to let go with a chuckle.

“You gave me ideas when you had L kneeling that day.” Beyond told him.

“If you wanted that you should have taken L,” Light frowned. This… this wasn’t good.

“I disagree. If I took L he would fight, try to escape. Try to run back to you.”

“If he didn’t he wouldn’t be L,” Light argued. Beyond giggled.

“Oh, you do think highly of him, don’t you?” he rolled his eyes. “He’s…”

“Childish? Manipulative? Blind to what is right in front of him?”

“Always looking out for number one.” Beyond accused. “He has you convinced that he feels for you as you feel for him, all because he joined your side in this fight? Because he kneels before you, shouts your false name when he comes?”

Light remained impassive, but Beyond’s words hit a wound that was barely healing. L had spent so long distrusting him, and then all of a sudden he had accepted Kira. It had made Light suspicious then and it still did now, up to and including L’s declaration of love for him. But L had done far more for him since then… although, even in taking the eyes, he was protecting himself as well.

“Give me L.” Beyond demanded, latching on to the momentary indecision in the young man. “Give him to me and you can have the rest of the world.”

L for the world? Well, there was no real choice there.

“And if I refuse?” Light challenged.

“I don’t think you will,” Beyond grinned. “I still have Sayu.”

Sayu. So she was still alive? That… complicated things. Not that Light wanted her to be dead, of course he didn’t, but if Beyond had killed her, his choice would have been easier to make.

“Threatening her won’t help you…”

“No, but how’s that as a sweetener for a deal? You make me happy, and I’ll let your pretty little sister go.”

“Pretty?” Light tasted bile in the back of his throat. “What have you done to her? She’s fourteen!”

“Pretty, not sexy,” Beyond rolled his eyes with a huff. “Scream like a banshee. Barely had to touch her with my knife before I couldn’t stand it anymore.”

“I asked what you had done to her?” Light demanded again, more firmly.

“I carved your name into her pretty forehead and let the blood drip into her eyes,” Beyond grinned. “That’s it. She’s fine. She’ll stay that way, if you play along.”

“I don’t believe you,” Light challenged. “I want to see her.”

“As you wish,” Beyond agreed to Light’s surprise. His eye twitched. Light took notice because of all Beyond’s odd habits that was one he had not seen before, but he had to simply keep it in mind and focus on other things as Beyond grabbed the metal cage and pulled it behind him out of the room. The cage seemed to be on wheels, maybe prepared for this.

They didn’t go far, just through to the next room in this underground area Light could only describe as a dungeon. There was Sayu, still bound as Misa had been and still appearing intact but by far too quiet.

“Sayu,” Light gasped, alerting the girl to his presence.

“Light!” his little sister’s usually shrill voice seemed to have dropped a couple of octaves with overuse. She must have been screaming for hours. “Oh no… they got you, too?”

“It’ll be okay,” he assured. “All this fighting, it’ll all be over soon.”

“I don’t want to die,” Light would have expected his little sister to be crying, even though he knew she only ever cried when she wanted to get something.

“So, what do you say, Kira?” Beyond demanded, pinched fingers producing the Notebook from where he had slotted it into the back pocket of his jeans, rolled up. “The world, and your sister’s life as a down payment? Or she dies, so do you… but L goes free.”

Light hesitated to remind Beyond of the capacities of the book in his hands, but the madman was no fool. He knew what he was holding, knew what it could do.

“You have a Notebook, I’m surprised you don’t just write their names.”

Write Near’s name, and Mello’s. Get rid of them, get them out from under his feet. Write L’s name, and he could control him for twenty-three days, days in which L could be made to worship him like a God if he chose to.

“And where would be the fun in that? I prefer a more hands on approach. This,” he held up the book, “is cheating.”

“But you would cheat,” Light reminded him. “You’d use it to kill me and Sayu…”

“Only to control you for a while, sweet Kira,” Beyond stroked the spine of the Note. “Sayu… I’d tear that annoying voice box right out of her pretty little throat… unless… make your choice, Kira.”

Light took a breath, considering his options. What other choice did he have?

“Well,” he sighed heavily, “I suppose L will forgive me.”


	19. Defeat

“Could you do it?”

Mello looked up from the chocolates Ryuk had stolen for him for the first time in hours. L had been watching the clock and eating sweets throughout that time, waiting for Rem to return, never setting down the Notebook that he clutched in his hands.

“Do what?”

“Could you kill Near?”

“I…” Mello hesitated. For so long he had been determined to protect Near, no matter how stupid and destructive his decisions had been, but it might be the only way. Whether they had been friends or rivals before, Near was no longer acting like the rational young boy destined to be the next L; he was coming apart at the seams. “If there is no other choice.”

L nodded slowly, continuing to stare at him for much longer as he decided whether he believed Mello. Equally slowly, almost reluctantly, he opened the Death Note and tore out a page. Folding it messily and pocketing the single piece, he offered Mello the Notebook.

“You will be needing this,” he suggested.

“L…” Mello took the book, opening it to the last page. He stared at the blank white space there. “I thought we had to wait until Sayu was free? And what about Light…”

“I’m not suggesting you kill him _now_ ,” L huffed. “You’ll know when it’s time.”

Mello had been sure that L was gambling, not knowing what the outcome would be but he looked determined now, if a little resigned, and sure of himself.

“You actually have a plan don’t you?” Mello questioned. “You know we’re going to win.”

“Rem isn’t back yet,” L smiled sweetly, “but it’s working.”

The room seemed to drop in temperature by a couple of degrees as a slight breeze blew from behind Mello, who turned his head to see Rem’s landing.

“It is time,” she told them grimly. “Sayu has been freed.”

* * *

 

Near had built a head high maze of lego, complete with traps on the wrong turns. If Mello were here the traps would have been better; explosives and bullets rather than eye-level spray paint and nets that would fall from the ceiling. Near had guns available to him but the practicalities of setting up such a trigger mechanism was never his specialist area.

Spray paint and nets wouldn’t stop Beyond, never mind L or Light, but it was the best he could do with what he had.

He could run. Perhaps he should run. The chance of victory had been less than 30% even before he saw what Beyond had been doing in the cell with Kira. Beyond had disconnected the audio but it was obvious that he was plotting against him. He had made some sort of deal with Light and then he had released Sayu Yagami, their insurance. The chance of victory, even if Beyond’s deal had been intended to be in their favour, would be less than ten percent now.

Near had been backed in to a corner and for once he felt afraid.

A spray can sounded, a quiet hiss, and there was a clatter and a string of profanity followed by heavy footsteps.

Beyond rounded the corner, his black shirt spray painted a fine shade of baby pink. Unfortunately he didn’t seem to agree, throwing a knife which Near, expecting it, somehow managed to dodge.

“Did you think this would be funny?” the madman growled, ripping the shirt off and throwing that too.

“Where’s Kira?”

Beyond giggled. “Kira? Oh, just making himself pretty for his boyfriend.”

Near twitched as Beyond flicked an empty palm in his direction as if he were about to throw a knife.

“What did you say to him?” Near questioned. “Why did you let Sayu Yagami go?”

Beyond tutted at him, shoving his hands in his pockets and kicking one of the lego walls. It didn’t move, so he took a step back and kicked higher, this time knocking out a whole section. “Oh, I’m sorry, that’s classified information. Super secret, you know?”

“What are you planning, Beyond?”

The madman spun as he struck out with another kick, catching Near in the cheek as he threw himself aside. Near quickly righted himself into a familiar crouch, but he had no idea how to use it to fight like L did.

“It hardly matters to you,” Beyond knelt down in front of him, face inches from his own and red eyes wide. “The way I see it, when all this is done, _you_ will be dead.”

Beyond snapped at the tip of his nose with his teeth, almost catching even though Near recoiled quickly.

“They’re coming.”

Near swallowed nervously as he watched Beyond batter his way out of the maze, finding the most solid of the walls Near had built impossible to kick through and climbing over it rather than bothering to go round. From the top of that wall he glanced back and tossed a piece of the lego to hit Near’s forehead.

“No knives?” Near wondered aloud, immediately regretting it. Beyond only shook his head.

“No need. You’re gonna die soon anyway.”

Near winced, racking his usually intelligent brain to come up with a plan but he couldn’t think. He tried to get to his feet for the fifth time that hour, toppling as he had the last four times as his right leg gave out. Bracing himself, he finally rolled up the leg of his trousers and checked the wound.

It didn’t take a genius to see that it was infected, badly so. In the time he had resolutely refused to check on it, the wound had more than festered. He had never seen anything like it outside of a textbook, but even with the haze over his thoughts he identified his condition immediately. Even if L and Kira did not kill him, he revised his chances of survival.

Zero percent.

He laid down on the cold concrete of the floor and waited for them. Dead or not, he wasn’t going to make this easy for them. After all, there were plenty of things he could do with just his computer.

* * *

 

“Rem, I’ve already asked too much of you,” L had told the Shinigami as their car pulled up, or since L was driving more skidded to a halt outside the tower. “This should be over soon, one way or another. I would ask just one more thing of you before this is done?”

“Alright,” she agreed reluctantly. “Would you like me to kill one of them?”

“No,” L dismissed. “I know it will be difficult since you can’t see you, but I want you to make sure that Sayu gets home safely and that she doesn’t lead the police here until Light calls his home.”

“As you wish,” the Shinigami left the car, flapping wings to gain altitude as she went off down the street in the direction Sayu had gone.

“She could have been useful,” Mello frowned at her retreating back.

“She would be in the way,” L looked at the door handle for a long moment as if expecting it to open itself, but without Watari he was forced to tentatively tug on it until the door eventually opened. “You can take Ryuk with you.”

“We’re not going in together?”

“In, yes,” L waited until Mello had gathered what weapons he had from the car, mainly kitchen knives. “But then it’s up to you to find Near yourself.”

“You’re going to Beyond?”

“Yes.”

“And if Light has agreed to the deal with him?”

“Then…” L gritted his teeth. “Then I will obey Kira.”

Even Ryuk wasn’t laughing, grasping the gravity of the situation. “It’ll be boring without you around.”

“Hey,” Mello looked hurt.

“For Light,” Ryuk explained. “You’ll never be boring Akane.”

“I have faith in him,” L told them hollowly.

“What about security?”

“They won’t be a problem.” L didn’t hesitate but to go to the door of the tower and push it open, glancing back to Mello. “Are you coming?”

Mello followed him inside, propping the door open in case it could be electronically locked – which, since L had designed this building – it definitely could be.

The foyer was entirely empty, quiet other than the faint hum of the electric lighting and their footsteps, but it was not undisturbed. Scattered around the foyer were bodies, and fresh red blood was painted across the elevator door, labelling it “13”. Mello looked to L, who pressed the 13 button on the elevator.

“This is for me,” L stepped in to the elevator as it pinged and opened. “You’ll find directions to Near’s floor in the stairway.

“This was you?” Mello looked around the number of the dead in the room. “You killed them? You did this?”

“Collateral damage,” L excused as the elevator doors closed.

Mello looked to Ryuk, who was impassive in the face of the death surrounding them. The Shinigami may be unaffected but he was not entirely blind to when Mello was distressed.

“It just seems unnecessary,” he explained as Ryuk moved to comfort him, shrugging him off. “At least some of them could have survived.”

“No one survives in the long run,” Ryuk reminded him by way of comfort. Mello supposed that in the Shinigami’s view that was meant to be reassuring, but it didn’t really help.

“Come on,” he moved to the stairwell, following the blood trail.

“Is that meant to still say four?” Ryuk wondered before they left. Indeed the elevator had reached the fourth floor and seemed to have stopped.

“No,” Mello frowned. “Maybe Near’s controlling it?”

A moment later the elevator did begin to move again.

“L did send that message to Matt,” Ryuk suggested as the solution. Mello hadn’t known that L had involved Matt in this, but it seemed reasonable. “Do you think he fixed it?”

“We can’t worry about L,” Mello sighed. “Focus on Near.”

He pushed at the stairwell door, finding it locked but before Ryuk could phase into the mechanism and break it the door swung open. Unfortunately Mello was still pushing on it at the time and he stumbled through, nearly landing flat on his face.

“Do you think that’s funny Near?” he grumbled, starting up the stairs.

“Should I go ahead Akane?”

“No,” Mello decided immediately. If Ryuk went ahead and Near made some sort of threat to Mello’s safety the Shinigami might just kill him, endangering his own life in the process. Mello didn’t want to risk an end to either of their lives. If Beyond really was acting alone and not with Near, maybe he would be able to convince the boy to give himself in. A life sentence would surely be preferable to death.

On the first landing was a number five written in blood, which Mello concluded must be Near’s floor. He proceeded tentatively, expecting traps but encountering none, though the lights intermittently flicked on and off and when they were plunged in to darkness there were noises in the dark, doors locking and unlocking, clattering and banging.

Ryuk guided Mello when the lights were out, able to see through the darkness with his Shinigami eyes.

Floor five. He took a deep breath, catching something on the air that made him cough, a sharp and acrid scent. Something here smelled like rot.

Mello pushed open the door and immediately knew that he had found Near.

A wall of lego almost certainly hid his old rival and friend behind it, though there was more scattered over the floor in all directions. Mello had never seen Near’s toys in a mess like that, and he took it to be a reflection of Near’s mental state. He had, after all, been working with a madman.

He took one step into the room before it fell dark, the quiet hum of electronic lighting silenced. There were no windows in this room, so Mello could not see where he was going.

Mello followed he sound of occasional clicks to keys, certain that it was the sound of Near typing. He cringed as he stood on the first blocks of lego which felt like it was stabbing into his foot even through his boot.

“Near, you have to stop.”

The typing continued, but it was only the occasional key which meant it was very difficult for him to follow. He had to stop several times to re-adjust as he made his way around the wall. He almost worried that Near may have dark vision goggles on, but that was more Matt’s style and besides once he got round the corner he could see the light of the computer screen.

Near was laid on his chest in front of the computer and Mello wasn’t sure whether it was just the colour of the light from the screen but he immediately thought that the younger boy looked flushed, feverish even.

“Near, if you stop this now you can still survive this,” Mello promised him. “I’ll make sure of it, I give you my word that I won’t let Kira execute you…”

Near didn’t look around at him at all, fingers tapping at keys but as Mello looked it was clear that whatever commands he was trying to give the computer made no sense. Carefully, wary of any traps, he moved closer.

“Near?”

Finally the white haired child looked up, and Mello realised it definitely wasn’t an effect from the computer screen.

Normally milky white skin was flushed pink, eyes bloodshot and exaggerated dark bags surrounding them. He almost looked like he had been crying.

“It’s over now,” Mello assured, kneeling down next to him. He reached out a hand to Near’s forehead and startled at the heat there. “You’re burning up…”

“Mello…” Near finally spoke.

“Near, what…”

“… it’s you.”

“Well, who were you expecting?” Mello laughed falsely, his concern growing. It was as if Near wasn’t hearing him or at least that he wasn’t understanding him.

“It should be you,” Near nodded. Mello thought he looked more content than he had ever seen him, almost peaceful. “It had to be you.”

“Akane,” Ryuk interrupted, unusually quietly. “His leg…”

Near had pushed himself upwards, pulling one leg under him so that he was almost sat up but his other leg remained stuck out behind him, unmoving and useless.

“Oh God…” Mello helped Near straighten the leg in front of himself, cooing and consoling when the young boy wept. He pushed the trouser leg up carefully, taking in the whole swollen and red thigh, the blackening tissue around the wound. “What…”

“Beyond,” Near whimpered. “Knife.”

“This is…”

“Gone,” Near pointed to the blackened flesh. “Dead.”

“It…” Mello couldn’t deny it, though he wished he could say it would be alright. “It’s just a leg.”

Near laughed, a single chuckle on the back of a sigh.

“It’s in my system,” he took Mello’s hand, pressing it to his chest to feel his racing heart. “It’s already too late.”

“It’s never too late to try…”

“No.” Near dropped the hand. “Do you have it? L wouldn’t have sent you here unarmed?”

Mello looked to Ryuk, who handed him L’s Notebook from the shadows. Near looked surprised to see the Shinigami though he had been stood there the whole time.

“Ryuk,” Mello spoke softly, hesitant as he held the Notebook. It felt as it should; final and ominous, like murder with none of the detachment or distance that the book usually provided. “If I don’t… will this kill him?”

“Yes, Akane,” Ryuk saw his distress even though he didn’t understand it and knelt on the floor beside him to wrap an arm around his back.

“L,” Mello frowned at the cover of the book. He looked to Near. “He knew. He fucking knew… he asked me if I could do it.”

Near smiled brightly despite his pain. “I hope so.”

“How can you say that?” Mello could feel his temper building, but he tried to keep it under control. There were more important things.

“I hope this is L’s plan,” Near told him. “Beyond and Kira… they’ve made a deal. I… I don’t want Beyond to win.”

“You sided with him,” Mello reminded, but immediately regretted it. It felt petty, bitter.

“I wanted you to join me instead.”

“This would never have happened,” Mello cringed. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s my fault. You always did say I thought too much of myself.”

“Yeah, trying to take over the world was maybe a little ambitious.”

“Just a touch,” Near reached out to take the Notebook from Mello’s hands. Though he should have been worried by that, Mello allowed it. Near only opened it to the next available page, pausing before handing it back to Mello to stroke a finger along the central crease. “L removed a page?”

“Yes, just in case,” Mello didn’t take the book back though Near offered it and it ended up set down on the floor between them, still open on the blank page.

“No,” Near denied. “No. It makes sense now. It’s a bold move. I hope it works out for him.”

“What?”

“You know,” Near considered. “I don’t think I’m going to tell you. You should work it out for yourself. Take your time.”

“Hey,” Mello huffed. “Are you still suggesting I’m slow?”

“Well, you always were second place,” he teased, but any humour was spoiled as he cringed when his leg throbbed with pain. “So?”

“You really want those to be your last words?” Mello wasn’t used to crying, never cried except for crocodile tears. He had resolved when he was a child that he wouldn’t cry, that he would be the strong one. When he had made that promise to himself he hadn’t pictured this.

“You’ll make a great L,” Near told him. “Much better than the old man.”

“I suppose that’s better,” Mello clicked the end of his pen, hovering over the page. Physically it was easy. That was the thing with the Death Note; all it needed was a name and a face. It was the forty seconds that came after that was hardest. “I never really hated you.”

“I like you too,” Near smiled.

“Oh come on,” Mello couldn’t hold them back any more. The tears fell in streaks down his cheeks, but he didn’t sob. “That’s cruel.”

“Is it?”

“You still need better last words,” Mello bit his lip. Why could he not just hold back on being snarky, just for this once?

“You’re right, and time’s almost up,” Near looked like he was considering hard before he smiled, a cheeky and genuine expression that Mello had not seen for a very long time. “To the strongest.”

Near had only just finished the words when he gasped, not clutching at his chest like so many of the Death Note’s victims because he had known it was coming. He gritted his teeth through the pain and Mello caught him as he rocked backwards, lowering him gently to the floor.

“Alexander the Great?” Mello recognised the quotation. “You arrogant bastard.”

Unseeing eyes seemed to confirm it even as they lost their focus.


	20. Completion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A triumphant victory?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been a long time in coming and for that I apologise. Writer's block, maybe due to the content of the chapter and maybe just because of real life stress, has been afflicting me but hopefully back now.

L had never had an issue with the doors of an elevator sliding closed before. He had never really understood claustrophobia in elevators when there were so many worse places that someone could be trapped, like the manacles of an electric chair or the tight choke of a noose.

His heart raced as these particular doors closed, but it was not the enclosed space of the elevator that frightened him. Instead it was the thought of when those doors opened, when he would be faced with whatever choice Light had made, whatever deal he had struck with Beyond Birthday.

But the elevator never made it to the thirteenth floor, and when the doors opened he did not see Light anywhere around him.

“Lawliet,” Beyond greeted him from where he was lounged on a large chair someone had draped with fabrics to make it larger, more impressive. A throne, of sorts. He had a wine glass filled with red liquid beside him, but the texture was evidently that of jam, and he was swirling it slowly around the glass so that the clear sides were stained with red. “Welcome to my parlour.”

“Said the spider to the fly?” L couldn’t help but look for Light, needing to see him, to be guided by his actions. How could he expect them to work together to defeat Beyond if he wasn’t even there? Unfortunately he was not as subtle about it as he thought he had been, and Beyond picked up on it.

“Looking for your precious Kira?” Beyond smiled. “Don’t worry, he’ll be here shortly.”

The elevator doors began to close, with L still inside. Beyond crooked a finger, calling L forwards and into the room. L wanted nothing more than to remain where he was in the relative safety of the enclosed space of the elevator, but that would mean showing weakness. Besides, he would only be postponing the inevitable. He shuffled into the room, his hands stuffed in to the pockets of his baggy jeans.

“You sent the children off to play?”

L nodded, watching silently as Beyond sipped at his jam.

“Do you think he’s got it in him, your boy?”

“He’s used the Notebook before,” L told him hesitantly.

“How sweet,” Beyond grinned. “You were making such a lovely little murder family.”

“There is a difference between murder and the death penalty.”

“True, but I still think I was right the first time.”

L’s mind raced with arguments, speeches about justice and making the world a better place but they were not his own words. These were how Kira would justify his actions, and L was not Kira no matter how many names he had written over the last days. When this was over, one way or another, Rem would return to the Shinigami realm and Light would go back to being the only one with a Notebook, the only one with that power. These were not his arguments to make.

“You call them children,” he instead challenged. “Yet you chose to take Near’s side.”

“I was bored,” Beyond scowled even as he took a sip from his glass of jam, the red liquid coating his lips and running in a thin trail down his chin and onto his chest where it pooled, looking just like spilled blood.

“You were impulsive. You played at madness too long,” L grinned as he tried and failed to wipe away the jam, instead managing to spread it around his mouth into the shape of a clown-like grin. “Madness becomes you.”

“And I become mad?” Beyond gripped at the arm of his makeshift throne, knuckles white as if undertaking a great effort and yet remaining seated, still as if bound there with invisible ropes.

“Enough for Near to believe it,” L moved closer, confident now. He surveyed Beyond curiously with his wide-eyed unblinking gaze, considering him like an experiment. “Enough for the guards.”

Beyond made a noise that could only be described as a growl, low and dangerous. “How long…?”

“Don’t you know?” L tipped his head all the way to his shoulder, a mimic of Beyond’s usual unnerving gestures. For him it was quite painful, tugging at muscles in an unnatural way, but he maintained it.

“Ah, but this is interesting,” Beyond’s knuckles relaxed abruptly, and he smirked back at L. “If this madness is not of my own creation, then that means…”

“It is mine,” L pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, the whole sheet covered in ink. Beyond caught a sudden breath but when it came out it was only a giggle.

“So Sayu Yagami was released on your instruction,” Beyond considered. “Would you have your Kira kidnapped, I wonder?”

“You made a deal with him,” L stated, not a question as he knew the answer. For Beyond to have freed Sayu, Light had to have made the deal. That was hardly a surprise; L had thought there would be a 87% chance.

“It didn’t take much,” Beyond told him, then frowned as he found himself not only able but compelled to move, sitting up and forwards in the throne, perching on the edge. The elevator was close to their floor then, about to open. L winked at Beyond, slipping the page back into his front pocket. “He barely hesitated, whored you out to secure his kingdom.”

L’s shoulders slumped, back curling into his typical slouch.

“And did you believe him?” he questioned cynically, turning with perfect timing to the elevator which opened to allow Light to enter.

The younger man looked unkempt, bare wrists bruised as if he had been bound or dragged, hair sticking out in ways L had never seen on the usually perfect Kira.

“L,” Light moved to him immediately, and the detective was surprised to see the carefully maintained mask appeared to have been forgotten. He looked distressed, even frightened, and as he rushed to L and grabbed him tightly in his arms L had no doubt it was as much of an act as his usual masks. “You shouldn’t have come here…”

“I couldn’t just leave you,” L spoke, loudly enough for Beyond to hear. He awkwardly wrapped his arms around Light in return, wondering what he was hoping to achieve with this hug, which was far out with his usual character. If Beyond had been in control of his faculties he would surely not have been fooled…

“Ah, Kiiiira,” Beyond all but sang, giggling at them. “Hands off my prize.”

Light stepped back, his masks falling into place as he looked round to Beyond.

“You made a deal,” Beyond reminded him. “No wasting time now.”

“A deal?” L questioned, turning wide eyes on Light. Let him think L didn’t know.

This was all part of his test, after all.

“Yes,” Light didn’t look at him, didn’t meet his eyes. L searched, unblinking, for where the mask ended and the truth began, but Light had always been able to remain obtuse when he wanted to. Even L couldn’t tell what he was thinking at that moment, who he was deceiving more – him or Beyond. “Sayu has been freed, and Beyond will join in support of Kira for as long as you both live.”

“Oh,” L frowned. “What did you give…?”

“You.” Light looked him in the eye then, and his entire demeanour changed; commanding and imperious, he held his gaze. “You will go with him, do whatever he says. It’s a small price to pay, to create the new world.”

“Light…”

“Enough,” Beyond interrupted before L could make a scene. “Time’s up. Kira, you should go now.”

Light nodded, not taking his eyes off L.

“You will obey,” he pressed.

“Yes, Kira,” L wondered how much submission Light needed to see from him in that moment, whether he would demand that he kneel for Beyond, but Light only nodded and moved to the elevator.

L waited until it was gone, descending through the floors, before he turned to face Beyond only to find the madman’s face inches from his own.

“Well, he’s gone,” Beyond grinned. “Your plan failed.”

“Not at all,” L straightened his back and poked Beyond in the chest. What would never have worked without the influence of the Notebook was now an irresistible force and Beyond backed away, returning to the makeshift throne. “He had to make the deal to get Sayu away from you safely. What matters is what he planned next…”

L, like Beyond, rarely had only one motivation for his actions.

He had an entire flight to Japan to think, to plan and to scheme. He had not needed all that time to plan Near and Beyond’s downfall. His thoughts had turned, to the future and as they always did, to Kira.

He believed, 99%, that Light could see value in keeping him around. He was even 80% sure that Light would keep him when he gave the Death Note back to Rem at the end of this fight, when the world would have fallen to Kira. But 80% was not good enough for him. He wanted to be sure.

And now he could be.

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a ring. His ring, containing a small strip of Death Note paper.

It would be large enough to write Beyond Birthday’s name, if he had needed to. If this had not been a part of his plan all along. Light had slipped it to him when they had embraced, taking a huge risk that Beyond might suspect something and might declare the deal invalid. Sayu might have been released, but Beyond was holding the Notebook as hostage now in its place, and if Light was caught out in betraying his deal with Beyond he would risk both losing that Notebook and his life.

And still, Light had taken the risk and given L a way to kill Beyond and return to him.

“It seems,” he flicked the ring over between each of his knuckles, from one side of the hand to the other and back again, “he intended to give me a way out all along.”

“Eugh,” Beyond faked gagging. “Disgusting. He c _ares_?”

“It seems so,” L beamed, slipping the ring onto his finger.

Beyond glared at the simple metal band, which L regarded as if it held a huge diamond, turning it this way and that to see how it caught in the poor electronic lighting. “He still made the deal and left you here. He didn’t know you were pulling the strings.”

“The deal he made with you,” L ignored Beyond’s attempt to aggravate him. “I suspect it involved kneeling?”

“It…” Beyond’s eyes went wide as, with movements as stiff and artificial as a marionette, he left the throne and knelt on the floor in front of it. L strode towards him, nipping a fingertip in his teeth as he studied the results of the Notebook’s control.

“Interesting,” he commented, ignoring that Beyond glared up at him silently. “Now that you are aware of the control, you can try to fight it?”

It appeared that Beyond was trying desperately to fight whatever force it was that was holding him on his knees before L, muscle groups contracting but ineffectually as if straining against a great weight.

“To think that you judged me, when I experimented with death.”

“I solved the case.”

“The girl solved the case,” Beyond huffed. “You didn’t dare come to LA. Afraid you wouldn’t be able to resist?”

“It was unnecessary.”

“So arrogant. But you overestimate yourself. After all this time, L, and you know what? I’ve won,” Beyond laughed. “Would you have given in to Kira without all of this? Would you kill me, your prodigal prodigy, if I had not forced your hand?”

“You overvalue your worth,” L lied. The main thinking he had done in the plane had involved trying to find a way to control just Near, already wounded and possibly already dying, to guarantee their victory without controlling Beyond. In controlling him, L was killing him because the Notebook could only work on those whose names were written, and there was no way to guarantee all of them would survive if Beyond were allowed to continue to run amok.

“How long will you continue this ridiculous charade?”

“How long before you die?” L glanced at the numbers above Beyond’s head, unchanged by the use of the Notebook. He would die a long way before his time, if his earliest calculations of what those numbers equated to were accurate. If the Notebooks had not found their way to Japan, Beyond would have lived to be old and grey in his prison cell. “Twenty-two days, give or take a few hours for time difference.”

It was the longest L could control him for, a value he had checked with Rem before he had written the name.

“For the next three weeks you can clear up the mess you’ve made,” L instructed, though the Notebook would already make sure of it. “You’re really going to put a lot of effort into it.”

“You know I will find any way to sabotage you that I can.”

“Not under the Notebook’s control. Not when I have specifically written otherwise,” L crouched, bringing himself to eye level with the other man and reached out a hand to rest on his shoulder. A gesture of sympathy though he felt none. “For once Beyond you’re going to have to behave yourself.”

Beyond’s lip curled and he smacked the hand away. “I hate you.”

“I know.”

* * *

 

“L,” Light hadn’t pulled the car away, set to wait as long as it took for Mello and L to emerge from the building, confident that L would be able to work out a way with the weapon he had given. He had been expecting a long wait but the genius detective had calmly left the building only a matter of minutes later, looking no worse for wear for the experience.

L crouched on the passenger seat, biting the end of his thumb as he regarded Light with wide eyes. The ring Light had left him was obvious on his finger.

“That was quicker than I expected,” he admitted, looking for the mourning that he had expected to see for the death of Beyond, but L was smiling around the thumb.

L did not answer him, reaching in to his front pocket of his baggy jeans and producing a whole page of Death Note paper. He held it out pinched between two fingertips for Light to take, to read.

“You bastard,” Light could hardly believe what he was reading. L had orchestrated this, from the moment the plane had landed in Japan? He had been kidnapped and he had thought L might actually have been left in danger, and all this time L was intending to kill Beyond anyway? He could have surely found a better way than this to get Sayu free before Beyond and Near were killed.

His thoughts quickly concluded that L must have another motive and the way the detective fidgeted with the ring on his finger – the other hand to where he had previously worn it, the left instead of the right – gave away that motive.

“This was all another test?” he grumbled, unable to put any venom into it. It seemed a pity that he should expect this sort of thing from L now. The detective never had trusted him, even when he seemed to put so much faith in Kira?

“The last one,” L admitted, the smile not fading. Light was quite sure he hadn’t blinked since getting into the car, staring so fixatedly. “Are you angry?”

“…no,” Light sighed, and though his grip tightened on the steering wheel he still wasn’t, but he was sure that he would be, when they were rested and all out of danger. “Where’s Mello?”

“With Near.”

“Yes, I presumed… but he’s taking his time.”

“Maybe we should go get him?” Light suggested. He was confident that Mello had to be safe – if he wasn’t, Ryuk would be causing chaos, maybe killing _him_ and the Shinigami was nowhere to be seen. L nodded, eyes downcast.

It didn’t take long to find Mello, silently gathering scattered tarot cards and lego blocks. The body in the room was not immediately apparent, though there was a smell that pierced to the core, rotten and vile. Mello had constructed a pyramid, of sorts, from the lego on a grand scale, high and wide enough to cover Near’s body completely.

“He always felt safest with his toys,” the boy told them, no longer looking a day over his fourteen short years as he crouched, carefully adding blue blocks to one side of the pyramid to create an ornate letter N.

“Mello…” the boy’s lack of violent reaction was frightening to Light, who had expected fire and destruction, not this.

“Let him,” Ryuk interceded, blocking their direct route to the boy with wings arched, defensive.

“Ryuk, this can’t be helpful…”

“Let him,” the Shinigami reiterated firmly. “Death is _my_ domain.”

L’s hand tugged at Light’s sleeve. “Maybe we should…”

“We won’t stop him,” Light promised the Shinigami, shaking off L’s hand. “But we’re not leaving either. We’re here when he’s ready.”

Ryuk slowly lowered his arched wings and returned to Mello, where he helped to gather and sort the lego blocks by colour but made no move to add them to the pyramid, letting Mello do that as he wished.

By the time Mello had gathered the last of the lego and arranged it into a cross in front of the pyramid it had been well over an hour, but they waited patiently all the same. Ryuk hovered nearby, not speaking for all of that time.

Mello stood before the cross he had created, head bowed in silent prayer, his rosary in his hand.

“He should have candles,” he spoke, the first words since they had found him in the room. “There should be candles, on the arms of the cross.”

“Near was never particularly religious,” L pointed out, insensitive as ever. Light tried to elbow him, but he was too quick to move away though he did look suitably cowed.

“There will be candles,” Light promised, steadily approaching the boy. Ryuk allowed it, though he watched L closely. “And we can make sure he is buried with his toys…”

Mello shook his head. “He wanted to be cremated.”

Light wondered when Mello had learned that, whether they had spoken before Near died or whether this was something he knew from back in the orphanage. It was difficult to imagine the two, so young, ever thinking about if they were to die and yet it would make sense, if they were to act as L. As orphans they would also have a more acute grasp than most of their age of the concept of death.

“Then that is what we will do,” Light agreed.

“There is a wall, at Wammy’s,” Mello told him. “A memorial. For the orphans who have passed on. His name has to go on it.”

“Of course,” Light promised, wondering what sort of orphanage would have to create a memorial wall.

“Beyond’s should too,” the boy suggested. “A had a quote. Next to his.”

Light looked to L for an explanation, but the detective chose instead to finally move closer despite Ryuk’s hateful glare. “What should it say, for Near?”

“To the strongest,” he smiled hollowly. “He chose them, his last words.”

“Alexander the Great?”

“I called him an arrogant bastard,” Mello frowned. “I… I think he was… gone… but what if that was the last thing he heard?”

“Then he’d know you were with him, till the end,” L reassured. “That’s what has to matter.”

“What about Beyond?” Mello turned to the detective. “What did he say, at the end?”

L shook his head. “I don’t know yet.”

“He’s not…”

“The Notebook,” L explained. “He’s under its control for the next three weeks.”

“He’ll be alone, at the end?”

“No,” L swore it. “Wammy’s boys stick together.”

Mello nodded, suddenly slumping, his weight falling into L’s catching arms and pulled in close as he sobbed loudly onto the detective’s shoulder. L looked awkward, not sure what to do with his hands as they ended up crouched together on the ground, but when Light joined them and guided L to hug Mello, he clutched the boy close and stroked his hair, soothing as best he could.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos really keep me motivated to write, and tell me that you're still interested. Please, if you can spare a moment, hit that kudos button and if you're especially generous, let me know what you think.


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